Pam Bondi

Announced as Trump’s nominee for Attorney General

After former congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration as U.S. Attorney General, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he will nominate longtime ally and former Attorney General of Florida Pam Bondi for the role. Bondi is known for her fierce loyalty to Trump, history of ethics questions, lax enforcement against bad corporate actors, and support for weaponizing the DOJ against political opponents.

Like Trump, Bondi has called for using the authority of the DOJ to respond to the indictments of the former president. On one Fox News appearance, Bondi proclaimed: “When Republicans take back the White House, and we will be back in there in 18 months or less, you know what’s going to happen? The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones — the investigators will be investigated.” Following Trump’s conviction on hush money charges, Bondi stated: “A tremendous amount of trust is lost in the justice system tonight.” Project 2025 proposes eliminating the independence of the FBI, a result consistent with announced FBI Director nominee Kash Patel’s statement that he would stack the agency with ​​“people who won’t undermine the president’s agenda” and announced OMB director nominee and Project 2025 architect Russ Vought’s pronouncement that the DOJ is “not an independent agency.”

Bondi serves as the Chair of the Center for Litigation and Co-Chair of the Center for Law and Justice at the America First Policy Institute. AFPI is a think tank created in 2021 by former Trump administration officials that has defended Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories and supports policies to eliminate the separation between church and state. Prior to the 2024 election, AFPI drafted policies and created staffing lists in preparation for a potential Trump administration, much like the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. AFPI’s board also includes Trump mega-donor and fracker Tim Dunn, whom Texas Monthly describes as a “billionaire bully who wants to turn Texas into a Christian theocracy.”

Bondi is a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm run by Trump’s Florida-based lobbyist Brian Ballard. Per Politico, Ballard “parlayed [his] relationship [with Trump] into a booming business helping clients get their way with the Trump administration.” Bondi has worked at Ballard since 2019, leaving for a short period to defend Trump during his first impeachment by providing assistance with his legal defense as well as “communications, strategy and other special projects.” When she spoke on the Senate floor during Trump’s first impeachment trial, Bondi delivered “a dissertation on Hunter Biden’s seamy relationship with a Ukrainian energy company.” And following the 2020 election, Bondi appeared on Fox News and aired debunked election conspiracies, claiming that “fake ballots” were “coming in late.”

While at Ballard, Bondi lobbied for corporations that have come under scrutiny by federal regulators. Bondi also lobbied for the GEO Group, a private prison corporation which has “seen its stock soar in the weeks since Donald Trump’s election in anticipation of new contracts linked to mass deportation.” GEO Group, under the name GEO ACQUISITION II INC, donated $1,000,000 to Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc. Super PAC in 2024. Bondi has acted as a lobbyist for foreign nations like Qatar, which has been condemned for its human rights record.

Prior to her career as a lobbyist, Bondi was Attorney General of Florida, where she was elected in 2010 and served until 2019. While Attorney General of Florida, Bondi was an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential run, endorsing him before her state’s Republican primary. At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Bondi chanted “lock her up,” referring to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with the crowd. In 2013, Bondi did not take action against Trump University following a $25,000 donation to her political action committee from the Donald J. Trump Foundation. This decision caused the watchdog group CREW to file multiple complaints with IRS and DOJ regarding the donation, including one alleging “criminal bribery.” Trump paid an IRS penalty for the illegal gift, and Trump’s foundation was later dissolved in New York.

During her tenure as Florida Attorney General, Bondi pushed out two prosecutors in her office who were investigating “foreclosure mills” that were allegedly using fraudulent methods to kick homeowners out of their homes during the financial crisis. Bondi ultimately either settled for small amounts or dropped the charges after receiving donations from some of the main players in the industry during her 2010 campaign. During the Obama Administration, Bondi was an advocate for repealing the Affordable Care Act and Florida served as the lead plaintiff in a multistate lawsuit against the law.

WHAT DOES PROJECT 2025 SAY ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Project 2025 calls for politicizing law enforcement and the U.S. judicial system, including:

– Terminating all FBI investigations/activities into Russian collusion, MAGA operatives, January 6th suspects, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) violations, and more.

– Curtailing the independence of the FBI, including by eliminating the agency’s General Counsel’s Office and pushing Congress to end the 10-year term for the FBI Director in order to make the FBI Director dependent on the President’s approval–abandoning a key Nixon-era reform.

– Pursuing “legal action” against local District Attorneys and officials that the Administration claims are “refusing to prosecute criminal offenses in their jurisdictions.”

– Expanding the investigation of leaks, including using powerful tools to identify records of unauthorized disclosures to the media.

PRECEDING CONTEXT FOR PROJECT 2025

– Trump tried to weaponize DOJ to overturn the 2020 election. Per CNN: “Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Trump’s attempted coup was how he relentlessly tried to weaponize DOJ to nullify President Joe Biden’s victory. The Democratic-run Senate Judiciary Committee investigated Trump’s conduct and concluded in a recent report that he ‘grossly abused the power of the presidency.’”

– Throughout his Presidency, Trump repeatedly called to prosecute his opponents. As reported in Vox:** **“He told Hillary Clinton that once he won, she’d be ‘in jail.’ He said that John Kerry ‘should be prosecuted.’ He wants Adam Schiff ‘questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.’ John Bolton, he says, should be ‘in jail, money seized.’ James Comey should face ‘years in jail.’” In July 2024, Trump also amplified social posts calling for televised military tribunals of Liz Cheney.

HOW ARE THESE POLICIES POSSIBLE?

– The President largely controls DOJ through the Attorney General, who is removable by the President without cause. DOJ could try to take legal action against local District Attorneys but would likely face challenges.

– Any sense of DOJ’s independence has resulted from presidents following norms that Trump began to unravel and could continue to erode.

– Federal and local prosecutorial discretion (the ability of prosecutors and law enforcement to exercise judgment in which cases and violations to pursue) is a bedrock principle that Trump could deploy to punish those he dislikes and favor what he prefers.