Loyalist, lobbyist, Fox talent: Who is Pam Bondi, Trump’s new A-G pick?
By Glenn Thrush
Washington: President-elect Donald Trump quickly swept aside the latest bad headlines about Matt Gaetz by speedily substituting Pam Bondi, a fellow Florida Republican with a starkly different profile – but a similar reputation for fealty – to be his attorney-general.
Bondi, 59, is a lobbyist and Trump loyalist who served as Florida’s attorney-general from 2011 to 2019. She has charted a more conventional and less clamorous course than Gaetz, with little of the ugly personal or political baggage that led some Republicans to oppose Gaetz’s nomination.
Former Florida attorney-general Pam Bondi speaks about a court order granting Donald Trump’s campaign more access to vote counting operations in Philadelphia in 2020.Credit: AP
She was a local prosecutor
Bondi, the daughter of the mayor of a small Tampa-area municipality, began working as an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County in the 1990s. During 18 years as a prosecutor, she tried cases “ranging from domestic violence to capital murder”, according to the bio page at her lobbying firm.
She supervised a handful of high-profile cases, most notably one involving former New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden, who served a one-year prison sentence for violating probation in a drug case in 2006.
She was elected Florida’s first female attorney-general in 2010
Bondi – a Democrat until 2000 – emerged from a crowded Republican primary to win the attorney-general’s race after garnering the support of Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and failed 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, and by touting her tough stance on crime during appearances on Fox News.
Former Florida attorney-general Pam Bondi.Credit:
During her eight-year tenure, she tried unsuccessfully to overturn and weaken the Affordable Care Act, opposed expanding legal protections for the LGBTQ+ community and cultivated a national reputation by supporting anti-human-trafficking efforts.
She also drew fire for her fundraising practices – and for persuading the governor at the time, Rick Scott, to postpone an execution in 2013 because it conflicted with a fundraiser for her re-election campaign. She later apologised.
Donald Trump at the launch of his now-defunct Trump University in 2005.Credit: AP
She declined to take legal action against Trump University
In 2013, Bondi’s office received nearly two dozen complaints about Trump’s short-lived for-profit university, and her aides said she was considering joining a multistate lawsuit brought on behalf of students who claimed they had been cheated.
Four days later, Bondi’s political action committee received a $US25,000 contribution from a non-profit funded by Trump. She never joined the lawsuit.
Trump and Bondi have denied a quid pro quo. But Trump had to pay a $US2500 fine in 2016 for violating federal tax laws in making the contribution.
She was a member of Trump’s impeachment defence team
After leaving office in 2019, Bondi was hired by Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump, and registered as a lobbyist for Qatar. She has also represented Amazon, Uber and General Motors, records show.
A year later, she joined the team defending Trump during his first impeachment, where she accused former vice president Joe Biden, then a private citizen, of engaging in corrupt business practices with his son Hunter. Those charges have never been substantiated, but her willingness to promote them cemented her bond with Trump and earned her a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention later that year.
She supported Trump’s false election claims
After Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Bondi supported Trump’s fabricated claims of election fraud.
In November 2020, Bondi deflected when a Fox News host asked her to back up her assertion that “fake ballots” for Biden were pouring into tabulation centres.
“Pam, did you just say fake ballots?” the host asked.
“There could be. That’s the problem,” replied Bondi, who later accepted a post with America First Policy, a Trump-aligned group.
“Just tell us what you know,” he added.
Bondi, who would be responsible for investigating allegations of irregularities in federal elections as attorney-general, did not provide any evidence.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.