When Donald Trump was on the verge of losing the 2020 election, Pam Bondi jumped in a car.
On Nov. 4, 2020, the day after Election Day, the former Florida attorney general and Rudy Giuliani raced from Washington, D.C. to Pennsylvania so they could help fire the first shots in Trump’s bid to reject the results of that contest — an ill-fated effort that would lead to Giuliani’s disbarment and criminal charges against Trump. Those shots included sowing doubt about the counting process and serving as Trump’s eyes and ears while he raged 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 drawn many national headlines and doesn’t radiate scandal like Trump’s first choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz. But when Trump has faced threats to his political career and livelihood, Bondi has been there.
When Democrats impeached him in 2019 for seeking political favors from Ukraine, Bondi took to the Senate floor as part of his legal team and delivered a dissertation on Hunter Biden’s seamy 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 media outlets to rip the case as a sham. And as the legal threats against Trump mounted, Bondi served as a reliable surrogate.
“All of these prosecutors hate Donald Trump,” she said in May on Fox News. “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 put him in jail for seeking to subvert the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
How Bondi would wield power as attorney general is unclear. Whereas Gaetz had long articulated his distrust of federal spying programs, called for breaking up and relocating the FBI and demanded an end to Jan. 6 prosecutions, Bondi has remained publicly silent on those issues.
Though Bondi, like Gaetz, is steeped in Florida Republican politics, she would bring a more traditional resume to the Justice Department. She spent two terms as attorney general of Florida and later took up lobbying for a firm known for its Trump ties, Ballard Partners. Bondi has also recently worked behind the scenes at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, where she acted as “chair” of its legal battles in the heart of the culture wars.
Bondi didn’t take a prominent role in court in most of those fights, although she was listed as an attorney for AFPI representing two sets of Colorado public school parents who filed a lawsuit last year alleging that their children attended “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” meetings without their knowledge, that school officials encouraged the students to keep their attendance at the sessions secret and that the discussions encouraged students to express gender “fluidity.”
A federal judge in Denver threw the case out in May. The parents’ appeal of that decision is pending. There’s no indication that Bondi attended the only in-person conference in the case. Another AFPI lawyer is set to 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” while serving as Florida AG in 2018. She’s spoken at Trump’s nominating conventions and at other annual conservative gatherings like CPAC.
Bondi’s recent lobbying clients at the federal level include sheriffs’ groups and an investment firm active in developing affordable housing, Alden Torch Financial. Lobbying disclosures show she advocated for a low-income housing tax credit.
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 White House stint, she was registered as a foreign agent for the Middle Eastern emirate of Qatar, advising that nation on relations with the U.S. and combating human trafficking, according to federal disclosures.
