Pam Bondi

Pamela Jo Bondi (born November 17, 1965) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and former politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Florida Attorney General from 2011 to 2019.

Bondi's hometown is Temple Terrace, Florida. Her father, Joseph Bondi, was a city council member and then Mayor of Temple Terrace. She is a graduate of C. Leon King High School in Tampa. Bondi graduated from the University of Florida in 1987 with a degree in Criminal Justice and was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She earned a JD fromStetson Law School in 1990 and was admitted to the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991.

Bondi acted as a prosecutor and spokeswoman in Hillsborough County, Florida, where she was an Assistant State Attorney. Bondi resigned this position to seek the office of Attorney General of Florida. She has made guest appearances on Scarborough Country with Joe Scarborough and various other cable news programming on MSNBC and worked for Fox News as a guest host.

Bondi prosecuted former Major League Baseball player Dwight Gooden in 2006 for violating the terms of his probation and for substance abuse.In 2007, Bondi also prosecuted the defendants in Martin Anderson's death.

Attorney General

In 2010, Bondi defeated Democratic State Senator Dan Gelber by a 55% to 41% margin to become the first female Attorney General of the State of Florida.

Bondi was the lead attorney general in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, or "Obamacare") in Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services. In the lawsuit the State of Florida and 26 other states argued that the individual mandate provision of the ACA violates the United States Constitution. In 2018, Bondi joined with 19 other Republican-led states in a lawsuit to overturn the ACA's bans on health insurance companies charging people with pre-existing conditions higher premiums or denying them coverage outright.

In 2013, Bondi persuaded Governor Rick Scott to postpone a scheduled execution because it conflicted with her reelection kickoff/fundraising event. After questions were raised in the media, Bondi apologized for moving the execution date.

Bondi was re-elected in November 2014, receiving 55% of the vote. Her challenger, state Representative George Sheldon received 42%.

Bondi opposed same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights issues on behalf of the state. Following the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016, Bondi was interviewed by CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, who questioned her about her sudden change in attitude towards the LGBT community in Florida. Bondi claimed to not only support the gay community, but had posted as such on her website. Bondi in a radio interview stated that the CNN interview had not been aired in its entirety and most of it was left on the cutting room floor, omitting the portion about potential scamming of survivors' families. While the entire interview had been aired live, only the portion involving Bondi's position on LGBT issues was originally uploaded to the CNN website. The website featured the interview in its entirety following this comment. In 2017, she opposed O.J. Simpson's return to her state for serving his parole for his robbery and kidnapping convictions that occurred in Nevada in 2008.

In August 2018, while still serving as Attorney General, Bondi co-hosted Fox News' The Five three days in a row while also appearing on Sean Hannity's Fox News show. Fox News claimed that the Florida Commission on Ethics had approved Bondi's appearance on the program; however the commission's spokeswoman denied that, telling the Tampa Bay Times that "no opinion was rendered" and that the commission's general counsel "did not express a view as to whether [Bondi's proposed hosting of the Fox shows] would or would not violate the Code of Ethics". The Tampa Bay Times described it as "unprecedented" for a sitting elected official to host a TV show.

Fundraising controversies

Bondi was criticized for some of her election fundraising activities, including contributions received from Donald Trump and his associates. The Florida Attorney General's office received at least 22 fraud complaints about Trump University. In 2013, a spokesperson for Bondi announced that her office was considering joining a lawsuit initiated by New York's Attorney General against Trump regarding tax fraud. Four days later, 'And Justice for All', a political action committee (PAC) established by Bondi to support her re-election campaign, received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, after which Bondi declined to join the lawsuit against Trump University. When controversy over their actions first arose in 2013, both the Bondi PAC and Donald Trump defended the propriety of the nonprofit foundation's political donation.

By contrast in March 2016, after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service about the illegal donation, the Trump Foundation stated that the donation had been made in error. It said that the Foundation had intended for the donation to go not to Bondi's PAC but instead to an unrelated Kansas non-profit called Justice for All. However, in June 2016, as Bondi was facing renewed criticism over the Trump donation and her decision not to join the lawsuit, her spokesman said that Bondi had solicited the donation directly from Trump several weeks before her office announced it was considering joining the lawsuit against him. Bondi and Trump did not reconcile their competing versions of events. On March 14, 2016, Bondi endorsed Trump in the Florida presidential primary, saying she has been friends with Trump "for many years." In June 2016, a spokesperson for Governor Rick Scott stated that the state's ethics commission is looking into the matter. Nothing further came from that investigation. In September 2016, the IRS determined that the donation to Bondi's PAC violated laws against political contributions from nonprofit organizations, and ordered Trump to pay a fine for the illegal contribution. Trump also was required to reimburse the foundation for the sum that had been donated to Bondi. Neither Bondi nor her PAC were fined or criminally charged for soliciting and accepting an illegal donation. In November 2019, Trump was ordered by a New York state court to close down the foundation and pay $2 million in damages for misusing it, including the illegal payment to Bondi.

Bondi also pressured two attorneys to resign who were investigating the technology giant Black Knight, then LPS, following the robosigning scandal, as part of their work for Florida's Economic Crime Division, after she received large campaign contributions from LPS.

Bondi's association with Scientology and the multiple fundraisers that wealthy Scientologists have organized for Bondi's political campaigns over the years have also provoked controversy. Bondi has justified those contacts and her speeches before leading Scientologists by arguing that the group wishes to help her crack down on human trafficking. However her public association with Scientology began in 2010, when it was already being investigated by the FBI for involvement in human trafficking and abusing its workers.

Work for Donald Trump

In 2016, Bondi gave a speech at the Republican National Convention during which she led "Lock Her Up" chants directed at the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In 2019, after leaving the Attorney General's office, Bondi was hired by Ballard Partners, a firm with close ties to Donald Trump, and she began working as a registered lobbyist for Qatar. In November 2019,she was hired by the Trump administration with "special government employee" status to help the White House in messaging during the president's battle against impeachment. Her job was described the following month as being to "attack the process" of the impeachment inquiry. On January 17, 2020, Bondi was named as part of Trump's defense team for the Senate impeachment trial. During the course of the trial, at which Bondi made allegations that Vice President Biden and his son were tainted by corruption in Ukraine, it was revealed that a man at the center of Trump's Ukrainian scandal, Lev Parnas, had several meetings with Pam Bondi in 2018 while she was Attorney General. Parnas is under indictment and accused of illegally funneling foreign money from Ukrainians and Russians to top Republican politicians, and he was partcularly active in directing money toward politicians in Florida during the 2018 election. During a dinner with Trump in April 2018 in which various controversial activities were discussed, Parnas mentioned that he had had lunch with Bondi the previous week. Parnas' lawyer released an audio tape of his dinner conversation with Trump, as well as photos of Parnas meeting separately with Bondi on at least two occasions.

Bondi married Garret Barnes in 1990; the couple divorced after 22 months of marriage. In 1996, Bondi married Scott Fitzgerald; they divorced in 2002.