When Donald Trump was about to lose the 2020 election, Pam Bondi jumped into a car.
On November 4, 2020, the day after Election Day, former Florida Attorney General and Rudy Giuliani rushed from Washington DC to Pennsylvania so they could help fire the first shots in Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of that election to reject – a bad thing. An ill-fated attempt that would lead to Giuliani’s suspension and criminal charges against Trump. Including those recordings sowing doubt about the counting process and served as Trump’s eyes and ears as he railed against the results from Washington.
Bondi’s manic road trip is emblematic of the role Bondi has played for Trump in recent years. She hasn’t made many national headlines or radiated scandal like Trump’s first choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. But when Trump faced threats to his political career and livelihood, Bondi was there.
When Democrats impeached him in 2019 for seeking political favors from Ukraine, Bondi went to the Senate as part of his legal team and delivered a thesis on Hunter Biden’s bad relationship with a Ukrainian energy company. Earlier this year, when Trump was on trial in Manhattan for covering up hush money payments to a porn star, Bondi was at his side and made the rounds to the media to label the case a sham. And as legal threats against Trump mounted, Bondi served as a reliable surrogate.
“All these prosecutors hate Donald Trump,” she said on Fox News in May. “They have a personal vendetta against him.”
Now Trump is turning to Bondi for her ultimate assignment: overseeing the agency that has tormented him and threatened to jail him for trying to undermine the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his estate in Mar-a-Lago.
It is unclear how Bondi would exercise power as attorney general. While Gaetz has long expressed distrust of federal spy programs, called for the breakup and relocation of the FBI and demanded an end to the January 6 prosecutions, Bondi has been publicly silent on these issues.
While Bondi, like Gaetz, is steeped in Florida Republican politics, she would bring a more traditional resume to the Justice Department. She served two terms as Florida’s attorney general and later began lobbying for a firm known for its ties to Trump, Ballard Partners. Bondi has also recently worked behind the scenes at the Trump-affiliated America First Policy Institute, where she acted as “chair” of the legal battle at the heart of the culture wars.
Bondi did not play a prominent role in court in most of those fights, although she was listed as an attorney for AFPI representing two groups of Colorado public school parents who filed a lawsuit last year claiming their children’s “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” had attended. meetings without their knowledge, that school officials encouraged students to keep their participation in the sessions secret, and that the discussions encouraged students to express gender “fluidity.”
A federal judge in Denver dismissed the case in May. The parents’ appeal against this decision is pending. There is no evidence Bondi attended the only in-person conference in the case. Another AFPI attorney will argue the appeal in January.
Despite a limited social media presence, Bondi has been a frequent guest on friendly Fox News and Newsmax shows, even hosting Fox’s “The Five” when she served as Florida AG in 2018. She has spoken at Trump’s nominating conventions and other annual conservative gatherings such as CPAC.
Bondi’s recent lobbying clients at the federal level include sheriff’s groups and an investment company active in affordable housing development, Alden Torch Financial. Lobbying revelations show that she advocated a tax credit for low-income housing.
Bondi took a break from her lobbying work in late 2019 and early 2020 to serve as a special assistant to Trump as part of his impeachment defense team. Before and after her stint in the White House, she was a registered foreign agent for the Middle East emirate of Qatar, advising that country on relations with the U.S. and the fight against human trafficking, according to federal disclosures.
