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The Justice Department proposed a new rule on Wednesday purporting to block state bars from investigating and punishing DOJ lawyers accused of violating state ethics requirements. Under this rule, Attorney General Pam Bondi could freeze state bars’ probes until the department has undertaken its own independent review of any allegations—a black-box process that could stretch on extensively. Wielding this new power, Bondi could essentially quash any state investigations into ethics violations by DOJ lawyers, including accusations that these front-line attorneys lied in court, by allowing “reviews” that might last indefinitely. If upheld, the rule would bail out the many, many DOJ lawyers who allegedly breached their ethical obligations in defending the Trump administration.

On this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed Bondi’s sweeping proposal and its (slim) odds of standing up in court. A preview of their conversation, below, has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Dahlia Lithwick: We have seen a lot of complaints lodged with state bars against a whole bunch of Donald Trump’s Justice Department supervillains, including Pam Bondi herself, Todd Blanche, Ed Martin, and Emile Bove, who is now a judge. In a truly extraordinary piece of timing, the New York Times reported on Thursday that the on-again, off-again interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is also facing an ethics probe in Florida, her home state, by its bar. But the DOJ........

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