Shady Things About Pam Bondi

Sometimes someone’s smiling, bright, blonde beauty can obfuscate a shocking level of secret shadiness; this is the case with one Pam Bondi. When Donald Trump faced immense criticism for choosing Matt Gaetz, a man hated by many celebs and politicians alike, as the U.S. attorney general, the newly elected 47th president decided to go with another Floridian — Pamela Jo Bondi. After all, Gaetz was facing a House Ethics Committee report, which “found substantial evidence” that he’d “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity” and “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl,” among other debaucheries.

While Bondi might seem cherubic in comparison, she too has skeletons in her closet. In fact, there’s an ongoing campaign to disbar her due to concerns of ethical violations. Nevertheless, Bondi has ascended the ranks of political office for two decades without missing a step. She went from being an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County in the 2000s to becoming Florida’s attorney general in 2010, a position she held until 2019. She then worked as a lobbyist until accepting Trump’s nomination for attorney general in November 2024 — her biggest position yet. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, as they say, and with this new role putting Bondi in the spotlight like never before, the shadier aspects of her career are coming under new scrutiny.

While Pam Bondi has been a successful prosecutor and attorney for decades, she really became a household name in July 2025. This was when she essentially became the mascot for the infamous Jeffrey Epstein scandal. There are myriad conspiracies surrounding the sex offender’s death and the so-called “client list” that could implicate various public figures, and Bondi was one of many government officials who promised to release the bombshell Epstein documents. In February 2025, Bondi told Fox News that the Epstein files were “sitting on [her] desk right now to review.”

After months of such promises, Attorney General Bondi and the Justice Department disappointed Trump’s base by concluding that there actually was no client list and that Epstein did indeed die by suicide. This created an immediate rift within the MAGA movement, with even Trump’s biggest supporters criticizing the lack of transparency. While many people have been subject to the wrath of MAGA for the handling of the Epstein scandal, Bondi has become its main poster child and scapegoat du jour.

Despite this, Trump has vociferously defended Bondi, writing in an apoplectic and epic July 12 Truth Social post, “They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” before writing in all-caps, “LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!” Of course, this is only one controversy in Bondi’s career.

Pam Bondi actually has a long history with Donald Trump, who had donated $25,000 to a political organization set up to fund Bondi’s reelection as Florida’s attorney general, as reported by The Tampa Bay Times. In September 2013, that donation from the Trump Foundation was a contentious one, specifically solicited by Bondi and coming just a few days after her office announced they were reviewing allegations that Trump University was engaging in fraudulent and deceptive conduct. Florida’s attorney general then decided not to join the New York case against Trump University, resulting in some quid pro quo salacious rumors Bondi may never live down.

While this certainly looked bad for Bondi, an ethics investigation concluded that she did nothing illegal. She told The Tampa Bay Times in June 2016, “I was never, nor was my office, investigating him. Never. I would never lie. I would never take money. I’ve been obviously devastated over this.”Bondi seemingly wasn’t devastated enough to reject a fundraiser Trump held for her after she decided not to pursue the case against him.

While Bondi was cleared, the Trump Foundation was held accountable for making the illegal donation, as charitable foundations are not allowed to make campaign contributions. According to The Washington Post, the Trump Foundation had donated to many states’ attorney generals who were reviewing his business dealings. The Foundation was eventually shuttered and forced and pay $2 million in damages (via NPR).

Trump University wasn’t the only business that benefitted from Pam Bondi’s time in Florida. “As Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi frequently played favorites with big corporate donors and political insiders at the expense of everyday consumers, patients, and the public good,” Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, said. The organization and Salon published reports that meticulously detail alleged “office peddling,” as Carrk termed it, between Bondi, businesses, and the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). RAGA is especially important because, as The Tampa Bay Times reported, it donated $750,000 to Bondi’s re-election campaign between 2013 and 2014. Bondi would go on to become chairperson of the association.

As discovered by Accountable.US, Bondi’s office dropped a tax fraud lawsuit against Expedia after they contributed $192,530 to RAGA, and Bondi filed amicus briefs in support of lawsuits attempting to overturn a semi-automatic weapons ban and lower the age to purchase handguns from 21 to 18 — this came after the NRA contributed $133,853 to RAGA. Additionally, hospital debt collector Accretive Health and the for-profit online college Bridgepoint Education donated tens of thousands of dollars to RAGA, and Bondi chose not to pursue lawsuits against them.

Perhaps the biggest perceived “pay to play” with Bondi was with fossil fuel companies, which, according to Accountable.US, contributed more than $1.26 million to RAGA in advance of Bondi’s multiple lawsuits which fought against the Environmental Protection Agency and its pollution limits. Bondi and Florida Governor Rick Scott took legal action alongside lobbyists to block a clean water initiative and fought against federal regulations for sewage and pollution.

Lender Processing Services also appeared to benefit from Pam Bondi’s time as Florida’s attorney general, though they only donated just shy of $32,000 to RAGA, according to the aforementioned Accountable.US report. They were one of several Floridian “foreclosure mills” that were being sued for allegedly using phony documents to rip off customers.

Attorneys June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards were part of Florida’s Economic Crimes Unit in 2010 and were investigating law firms that created a foreclosure assembly line of sorts. As The American Prospect reported, phony documents were used as false evidence in courts; some were dated 9/99/9999, or literally signed “Bogus Assignee.” As one paralegal testified in a deposition, one firm received fake documents from offshore foreclosure shops in Guam and the Philippines that the paralegals would sign, and people regularly used notary stamps with forged signatures. The case was clear cut. Then, in November 2010, Pam Bondi was elected as Florida’s attorney general.

Clarkson and Edwards were fired in May 2011 as Bondi dismantled the Economic Crimes division. Following their dismissals, Bondi’s office never issued a subpoena to a foreclosure mill, dropped investigations into several of them, and settled for $2 million with another, according to The Palm Beach Post. Bondi’s office reportedly went so far as to encourage the attorney’s office in Michigan, which was also investigating Lender Processing Services, to lessen their charges. This controversy is documented in journalist David Dayen’s book “Chain of Title” and is yet another shady example of Bondi’s corporate relationships.

Pam Bondi is not a Scientologist, so at first glance, it may seem like her association with Scientology is a strange anomaly among her many shady connections. It makes sense, though, when one considers the sworn testimony of former Scientology official Marty Rathbun, who revealed that the Church of Scientology had donated as much as $30 million to influence attorneys, judges, and other officials. Rathbun told The Underground Bunker, “Scientology has never endorsed anybody where there wasn’t a clear self-interest. … It’s all self-interest, and they’ll make sure Bondi knows that this is the church and these are Scientologists.”

The Church of Scientology also owns property throughout Florida, and Bondi began her relationship with them during her 2010 campaign when she toured their Clearwater facility, according to The Tampa Bay Times. High-level Scientologists have arranged fundraisers for her, including an event on July 1, 2014, which required a $1,000 donation per head and an October 1, 2016, event at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, considered the spiritual headquarters of the Church.

Bondi’s former campaign spokeswoman Cristina Johnson excused her interactions with them in 2012, telling The Tampa Bay Times, “It’s like-minded folks sharing the same goals: Protecting children against drug overdoses and human trafficking.” Scientology may be facing a tough future, according to experts, and their shady history of endorsements won’t soon be forgotten.

While anything associated with Scientology is arguably shady, perhaps the most embarrassing fundraiser in Pam Bondi’s career was a literal matter of life and death. This September fundraiser kicked off Bondi’s 2014 reelection campaign, but the date became a problem when death row inmate Marshall Lee Gore was scheduled to be executed on the same day. An execution typically involves the state’s attorney general in some capacity — usually to inform the governor that there is no legal basis to delay any further — which would’ve interrupted Bondi’s bash. As such, Bondi had the execution moved to October 1.

This is especially ironic of because Bondi was a vocal proponent of the “Timely Justice Act,” which sped up executions. As such, Bondi received a bevy of criticism for her decision and its perceived hypocrisy. David Donnelly, executive director of the nonprofit Public Campaign Action Fund, told The Tampa Bay Times, “That Pam Bondi requested a delay in this execution shows how the nonstop chase for campaign cash has hollowed out the morality of our political system. Her moral compass is broken.”

Bondi even made a public apology, saying, “The planned execution of Marshall Lee Gore had already been stayed twice by the courts, and we absolutely should not have requested that the date of the execution be moved” (via NBC News).

Florida Governor Rick Scott has his own lengthy record of scamming people out of millions of dollars – and some of his indiscretions intersected with Pam Bondi’s time as the state’s attorney general. For instance, in November 2013, the pair faced multiple lawsuits related to their handling of public records, according to The Florida Times-Union. It was a complicated, sprawling scandal that involved Scott and his staff’s alleged use of private emails and text messages to conduct government business outside public channels. Bondi was concomitantly sued for using her personal iPad to keep government records (which she subsequently refused to turn over).

In August 2015, Scott and Bondi paid $700,000 to settle the lawsuits against them, and they never had to release their records. According to The Tampa Bay Times, this was the first time in Florida’s history that an attorney general (and governor) have settled lawsuits which alleged that they violated Florida’s public records laws. It was hardly a victory for the citizens of Florida, though, as it was their tax dollars that footed the $700,000 bill — $445,000 of which came from the Department of Environmental Protection budget.

Two week after leaving office, Pam Bondi became a partner at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners LLC, lobbying on behalf of more than 30 different clients, including Amazon, for which she earned over $1 million in 2024.

Bondi also lobbied for the GEO Group, a private prison company that has faced lawsuits related to forced labor, wrongful death, and chemical exposure, according to NPR. Under the second Trump administration, GEO Group is profiting exorbitantly from the increase in detentions and deportations; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is its biggest customer, as NPR notes. The very day after Trump was elected again, GEO Group’s stocks increased by 41%, according to Yahoo! Finance, and have only continued to rise. Bondi did not list this or any of her lobbying for Ballard as a potential conflict of interest when she was nominated for U.S. attorney general, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Bondi, of course, had to leave Ballard Partners LLC when she became the attorney general. 

Among the many potential conflicts of interest Bam Bondi failed to disclose when becoming the U.S. attorney general, her registration as a literal foreign agent may be the shadiest. According to a detailed report by Public Citizen, Bondi was listed as “key personnel” in a contract between Ballard Partners LLC and the Embassy of the State of Qatar, and thus had to register as a foreign agent, which she did in July 2019.

Bondi’s registration documents state that her role with Qatar included “advising, counseling, and assisting the foreign principal in communication with U.S. government officials, U.S. business entities, and non-governmental audiences.” Additionally, it was noted that Bondi would “provide Government relations strategic advice and advocacy with respect to enhancing US-Qatar bilateral relations, and further developing trade, investment and business opportunities.” Qatar paid Ballard $1.38 million — or $115,000 per month from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020 — although it is unknown how much of this went to Bondi personally.

Along with Qatar, Bondi also worked on behalf of a Kuwaiti investment firm, KGL Investment Company KSCC, with Ballard earning $300,000 from them in 2019 (via Associated Press). Two of their former executives were imprisoned for embezzlement, and the company had been investigated for its relationship with Iran.

Long before her appointment as U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi has been doing Donald Trump’s bidding in hyperpartisan ways. In March 2016, she became the only elected Florida Republican to endorse Trump prior to the state’s GOP primary. After her endorsement, Trump said of Bondi, “It is my great honor to receive the endorsement from a leader as highly respected as Attorney General Pam Bondi. … Pam is one of the many individuals I have formed a great relationship with and I am very proud to receive her support.”

Bondi supported Trump throughout his 2016 campaign, appearing at rallies and speaking at the Republican National Convention, where she praised the crowd for their “Lock her up” chants, referring to Trump’s opposition, Hillary Clinton. When Trump won that primary and the subsequent presidential election, Bondi became one of only 16 people in his transition team, according to Politico. Then, in November 2019, Bondi was hired as a part of the president’s counsel during Trump’s first impeachment proceedings.

In 2020, Bondi became one of the most vocal proponents of the “stop the steal” movement, which claimed Trump actually won the 2020 election instead of Joe Biden (who won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232). “We’ve won Pennsylvania,” Bondi claimed at a November 2020 press conference alongside Rudy Giuliani (via The Tampa Bay Times). She also claimed on “Fox & Friends” that there were “fake ballots” in Pennsylvania (via Mediaite). Biden won that state by a 1.16% margin.

The Department of Justice is not supposed to be a partisan institution, yet, as attorney general, Bondi has been accused of politically weaponizing the department to specifically go after Donald Trump’s “enemies.” On her very first day as U.S. attorney general, Bondi formed a “Weaponization Working Group” that would, according to her Justice Department memo, “Conduct a review of the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States over the last four years.”

Bondi explained that the DOJ they would specifically look ingo Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, attorneys who had prosecuted Trump before his second presidential term. The former pardon attorney at the DOJ, Liz Oyer, told NPR, “The attorney general has made it clear that directions are coming from the very top, from the president, and she is there to do his bidding. That means pursuing enemies of the president. That means doing favors for friends of the president.”

Bondi and her office have also begun suing sanctuary jurisdictions, like Los Angeles, that have pushed back against Trump’s demand for increased deportations. A massive lawsuit was launched by 50 jurisdictions throughout the country in retaliation.

Donald Trump has fired many people during his presidency, keeping in line with his catchphrase — “you’re fired!” from “The Apprentice.” One hallmark of his second presidential term has been the gutting of federal departments through mass firings, including the DOJ, thanks to Pam Bondi. According to CBS News, Bondi removed Jeffrey Ragsdale, who headed the Office of Professional Responsibility, in March 2025, without naming a replacement. Additionally, the director of the Departmental Ethics Office, Joseph Tirrell, was fired in July 2025.

Sounding the alarm, former Civil Rights Division attorney Stacey Young told CBS, “[Bondi] seems to be on a mission to eliminate anyone who could represent the conscience of the Justice Department.” Young resigned from her position, as did senior ethics official Brad Weinsheimer. At least 35 Justice Department employees who worked under Jack Smith were fired, along with several officials who prosecuted insurrectionists from January 6, 2021, according to CBS News.

Is Bondi flicking off each light switch in the department, one at a time, in the pursuit of total shade? It seems so. “For prosecutors who encounter issues, problems or orders to violate their professional obligations, there is no more recourse,” Charles Work, former assistant attorney in the District of Columbia, told CBS. “There is nowhere to turn for help.”