Panama City attorney Christopher Rodriguez, who admitted planting explosives near the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., and later blowing up a satirical sculpture in San Antonio, has officially lost his law license in Florida. The Florida Supreme Court disbarred him on June 4, 2026, while he serves an 8½-year federal sentence, cutting off any chance of practicing law in the state for years to come.
Florida Supreme Court Strips License
In a June 4 order, the state Supreme Court disbarred Rodriguez effective immediately and listed the matter as case SC2025-1452. According to The Florida Bar, the disciplinary action stems directly from his federal conviction on explosives and related felony counts.
Federal Sentence and Guilty Plea
Rodriguez pleaded guilty in August 2024 and was sentenced on March 14, 2025, to 102 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office explains that the sentence covers both the September 2023 attempted attack near the Chinese embassy and the November 2022 bombing of a sculpture in San Antonio.
What Investigators Say Happened Near the Embassy
Court filings say Rodriguez drove from Panama City to the Washington area, bought a backpack, nitrile gloves, and a burner phone, and then placed an Ozark-brand black backpack holding about 15 pounds of exploding-target material roughly 12 feet from the back wall of the Chinese embassy. According to Court Documents, he moved to a nearby gravel lot and tried to set off the device by firing a rifle at it. His shots missed, the device never detonated, and investigators later recovered the backpack along with shell casings and bullet fragments.
Earlier Attacks and Key Break in the Case
Prosecutors say this was not Rodriguez’s first explosives stunt. In November 2022, he used the same basic method on a stainless-steel statue nicknamed "Miss Mao" in San Antonio, placing explosive canisters at the base of the artwork and shooting them from a rooftop. The blast caused at least $325,000 in damage to the sculpture.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also reported that DNA recovered from the backpack left outside the embassy matched an arrestee profile from a June 27, 2021, Los Angeles County arrest. In that earlier case, officers found firearms and jars labeled "Tannerite," the same brand of exploding-target material.
Defense Lawyer Cites Grief and Blame
Federal public defender A. J. Kramer urged leniency in sentencing, arguing in court filings that Rodriguez’s crimes grew out of "profound personal loss" and a belief that the Chinese government was responsible. As reported by the Miami Herald, Kramer wrote that the conduct was "completely at odds with Mr. Rodriguez's upbringing and lifelong character." The paper also noted that Rodriguez appears on the Bureau of Prisons roster at FCI Coleman in Sumterville.
Disbarment, Penalties and What Comes Next
The Florida Supreme Court’s order bars Rodriguez from practicing law in the state. According to The Florida Bar, disbarred attorneys generally must wait at least five years before they can even ask to be readmitted, and any attempt to return to practice involves a rigorous review.
The ruling effectively closes the book, at least for now, on Rodriguez’s status as a licensed Florida lawyer, even as he continues to serve his federal prison sentence for the failed embassy bombing attempt and the San Antonio sculpture attack.
