Pam Bondi
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Pamela Jo Bondi, a name synonymous with American law and politics, has carved a remarkable path through the halls of justice. Born November 17, 1965, her journey from the Tampa Bay area to the highest echelons of legal power is a testament to her dedication and ambition.
Bondi's early life was rooted in Temple Terrace, Florida, where her father served as both city council member and mayor. After graduating from C. Leon King High School in Tampa, she pursued higher education, earning a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from the University of Florida in 1987, followed by a Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law in 1990. Admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991, she embarked on a career as a prosecutor and spokeswoman in Hillsborough County, Florida, where she served as an assistant state attorney from 1994 to 2009. Her tenure saw her prosecute high-profile cases, including that of former Major League Baseball player Dwight Gooden and the defendants in Martin Anderson's death.
In 2010, Bondi made history by being elected Attorney General of Florida, becoming the first woman to hold the office. She was re-elected in 2014, becoming the first two-term Republican attorney general in Florida. During her time as Florida's top law enforcement officer, she was a lead attorney general in a lawsuit to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and she defended Amendment 2, which banned same-sex marriage, against legal challenges.
Bondi's career took a significant turn in the national spotlight when she served as one of President Donald Trump's defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial in 2020. By 2024, she was leading the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute. On November 21, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Bondi for United States Attorney General. Following her confirmation by the U.S. Senate on February 4, 2025, she was sworn in as the 87th United States Attorney General on February 5, 2025.
As U.S. Attorney General, Bondi has overseen significant initiatives, including the establishment of the Joint Task Force October 7 to seek justice for victims of attacks on Israel, and directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the Luigi Mangione case. She has also been a vocal proponent of President Trump's policies, including his efforts to secure the nation's borders and combat drug trafficking. Her tenure has been marked by decisive actions and a commitment to upholding the rule of law.
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Pamela Jo Bondi ( BON-dee; born November 17, 1965) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who has served as the 87th United States attorney general since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 37th Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, the first woman to hold the office.
Born and raised in the Tampa Bay area, Bondi graduated from the University of Florida and Stetson Law School. She served as an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County, Florida from 1994 to 2009. In 2010, Bondi was elected Attorney General of Florida, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. She was re-elected in 2014, becoming the first two-term Republican attorney general in Florida history. She was term-limited in 2018, and was succeeded by fellow Republican Ashley Moody.
In 2020, Bondi was one of President Donald Trump's defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial. By 2024, she led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. On November 21, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Bondi for attorney general after former congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 54–46 vote on February 4, 2025, and sworn in the next day.
== Early life and education ==
Pamela Jo Bondi was born on November 17, 1965. Her 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. Her younger brother, Bradley Bondi, is a lawyer.
Bondi received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in criminal justice from the University of Florida in 1987 and a Juris Doctor from the Stetson University College of Law in 1990. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority as an undergraduate student. Bondi was admitted to the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991.
== Early career ==
Bondi was a prosecutor and spokeswoman in Hillsborough County, Florida, where she was an assistant state attorney. 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.
== Florida attorney general (2011–2019) ==
=== Elections ===
Bondi ran for Florida attorney general in the 2010 election, facing off against former state representative Holly Benson and lieutenant governor Jeff Kottkamp in the Republican primary. In a competitive field, Bondi notably received the support of former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. The Palm Beach Post credited her surge in support in the primary to her media-savviness, including regular appearances on Fox News and her public association with Sean Hannity.
Polling conducted by Mason-Dixon in August 2010 found her leading both Benson and Kottkamp in the primary. She ultimately won the primary with 37.89% of the vote. In the general election, she faced Democratic nominee Dan Gelber, a former prosecutor who spent 10 years in the state legislature. She ultimately comfortably defeated Gelber to become the state's first female attorney general.
Bondi was re-elected in November 2014, receiving 55% of the vote. Her Democratic challenger George Sheldon, the former acting commissioner of the Administration for Children and Families, received 42%.
=== Tenure ===
Bondi was the lead attorney general in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known as 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 2011, Bondi pressured two attorneys to resign who were investigating Lender Processing Services, a financial services company now known as Black Knight, following the robosigning scandal, as part of their work for Florida's Economic Crime Division.
In 2013, Bondi persuaded Governor Rick Scott to postpone a scheduled execution because it conflicted with a fundraising event. After questions were raised in the media, Bondi apologized for moving the execution date.
In 2013, Bondi expressed her opposition to medical marijuana.
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.
Bondi defended Amendment 2, a 2008 amendment to the Florida Constitution banning same-sex marriage, against legal challenges on behalf of the state. Bondi said that these actions did not reflect her opinions on same-sex marriage, but were out of respect for the constitution. Following the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016, Bondi was interviewed by CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, who said that Bondi's expression of support for the LGBT community was at odds with her past record.
In August 2018, while still serving as Florida attorney general, Bondi co-hosted The Five on Fox News 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 spokeswoman for the commission denied that, telling the Tampa Bay Times that no decision was made by the commission and that the commission's general counsel did not make a determination whether or not Bondi's appearance as a host violated the Florida Code of Ethics. The Tampa Bay Times described it as "unprecedented" for a sitting elected official to host a TV show.
==== Trump donation to Bondi PAC ====
In 2013, Bondi received scrutiny following a campaign donation from Donald Trump. Prior to the donation, Bondi had received at least 22 fraud complaints regarding Trump University. A spokesperson for Bondi announced that her office was considering joining a lawsuit initiated by Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, regarding potential tax fraud charges against Trump. Four days later, And Justice for All, a political action committee established by Bondi to support her re-election, received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation. Bondi subsequently declined to join the lawsuit against Trump University. Both Bondi and Trump have defended the propriety of the donation.
In 2016, after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service regarding the donation, the Trump Foundation stated that it had been made in error, intending for the donation to go to Bondi's unrelated Kansas non-profit Justice for All. In June 2016, as Bondi was facing renewed criticism over the issue, her spokesman said that Bondi had solicited the donation directly from Trump several weeks before her office announced it was considering joining the lawsuit. On March 14, 2016, Bondi endorsed Trump in the 2016 Florida Republican presidential primary, saying she had been friends with him for many years. In June 2016, a spokesperson for Governor Rick Scott stated that the state's ethics commission was looking into the matter.
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 contribution. Trump was also required to reimburse the foundation for the sum that had been donated to Bondi. Neither Bondi nor her PAC were fined or criminally charged. 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 donation to Bondi.
== Return to private life ==
=== Lobbying work ===
In 2019, after her final term as Florida attorney general, Bondi was hired by Ballard Partners and she began working as a registered foreign agent and lobbyist for Qatar. Her work with Qatar was related to anti-human-trafficking efforts in advance of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. She left the Qatari project in 2019 to work in a temporary position for the White House Counsel for President Trump's first impeachment proceedings.
As a partner at Ballard Partners, she also became a lobbyist for KGL KSCC, a company incorporated in Kuwait. Bondi was lobbying for the Kuwaiti company to help with a case of claimed extortion. During her time at Ballard Partners, Bondi lobbied for GEO Group, Amazon, Uber, General Motors, the Florida Sheriffs Association and others.
=== Trump's first impeachment proceedings ===
In November 2019, she was hired by the first Trump administration to help the White House during Trump's first impeachment proceedings. Her position 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 impeachment trial, Bondi made allegations that former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter were involved in corruption in Ukraine, stemming from the younger Biden's position on the board of Burisma Holdings. It was also revealed that Lev Parnas, a businessman with close ties to Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine, had several meetings with Bondi in 2018 while she was the Florida attorney general, and after she left office in 2019.
=== 2020 presidential election ===
Bondi spoke in support of Trump at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Bondi became a vocal supporter of Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat. While ballots were being counted in the 2020 United States presidential election, Bondi supported Trump's false claim that there was large-scale voter fraud in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In an appearance on Fox News on November 5, 2020, host Steve Doocy challenged Bondi to provide evidence for her claims of fraud. She said "We know that ballots have been dumped." Bondi later claimed that Trump had won Pennsylvania, despite votes there still being counted, with his opponent Joe Biden ultimately winning the state.
=== Board of trustees and advocacy work ===
During the following lame-duck session, Trump appointed Bondi to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Palm Beach Post described the appointment as a reward for her loyalty to Trump.
By 2024, Bondi led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit that planned policies for a potential second Trump presidency. She worked to file voting lawsuits in battleground states relating to the 2024 presidential election.
== U.S. attorney general (2025–present) ==
=== Nomination and confirmation ===
On November 21, 2024, president-elect Trump announced she would be nominated for United States attorney general, after the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz for that position.
There were two hearings at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, one on January 15, 2025, and the second one on January 16. Bondi was questioned by Democratic Senators over her past work as a lobbyist, the 2020 presidential election results, her relationship with Trump, and her thoughts about TikTok.
On January 29, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved her nomination in a party-line 12–10 vote. She was confirmed in a 54–46 Senate vote on February 4. The only Democratic senator who voted "aye" was Senator John Fetterman.
Bondi disclosed to the Senate Judiciary committee and the designated ethics official at the U.S. Department of Justice the compensation for her consulting services to Renatus Advisors LLC of Puerto Rico in shares and stock warrants for the merger of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) and Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), which were in turn converted to shares and warrants of DJT on the day of the merger. The compensation for the consulting services totaled $2,969,563.
=== Tenure ===
On February 5, 2025, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas swore Bondi into office as the 87th attorney general.
On Bondi's first day in office, she shut down the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, shut down the DOJ's Task Force KleptoCapture, and cut back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Bondi has largely taken an implementation role as attorney general, with key decisions being made by Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and other White House officials.
In late February 2025, a number of files related to Jeffrey Epstein were released, heavily redacted and offering little new information. Bondi was criticized for her handling of the release, with commentators on the right and left labeling the move a political stunt rather than a genuine effort at transparency. Arwa Mahdawi, writing for The Guardian, derided the release as "a lot of redacted nothing".
In March 2025, Chief Judge James Boasberg of the federal district court in D.C. issued an order to temporarily block the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and also verbally ordered for the deportation flights "to be returned to the United States", to be "complied with immediately"; however, the Trump administration completed the deportations anyway, with Bondi and other Justice Department officials later arguing in a March 17 legal filing that "an oral directive is not enforceable as an injunction". Bondi and other Justice Department officials then submitted a March 18 legal filing stating that regarding certain details about the deportation flights requested by Judge Boasberg, "there is no justification to order the provision of additional information, and that doing so would be inappropriate". During a media interview on March 19, Bondi said regarding Boasberg: "this judge has no right to ask those questions" regarding details about the deportation flights, and has "no power" to order the Trump administration to stop the deportation flights, as Bondi declared that judges are "meddling in our government".
Following the United States government group chat leak in March 2025, Bondi indicated that the leak would not be investigated, saying that the information shared was not classified.
In March 2025, Bondi announced the establishment of the Joint Task Force October 7 (JTF 10-7) to seek justice for victims of the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas, which killed approximately 1,200 people, including 47 U.S. citizens, and saw about 250 others abducted, including eight Americans. The task force focuses on prosecuting the direct perpetrators of the attack, pursuing charges against Hamas leadership, and targeting individuals and entities providing support or financing to Hamas, related Iranian proxies, and affiliates. It also addresses acts of antisemitism linked to these groups. JTF 10-7 is led by senior officials from the Justice Department's National Security Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with personnel drawn from multiple DOJ divisions, the FBI, and international partners, including Israel's National Bureau of Counter Terror Finance.
Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the Luigi Mangione case.
In April 2025, Bondi said that fentanyl seizures in the first 100 days of Trump's second term as president had saved 21 million lives. Two days later, she increased this estimate to 119 million. Later that week during a cabinet meeting where she praised Trump and said that his first 100 days "far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country", she said that during the same period, DOJ agencies had seized "3,400 kilos of fentanyl...which saved—are you ready for this, media?—258 million lives". These statistics were met with skepticism given that only around 70,000 fentanyl deaths occur in the U.S. each year and the claim of lives saved represents 75% of the US population.
In April 2025, Bondi held a task force meeting on anti-Christian bias.
In May, it was reported that Bondi sold at least $1 million worth of shares in Trump Media on Liberation Day.
In July 2025, the Department of Justice and the FBI wrote a memo saying there was no evidence that a supposed list of Epstein's clients existed. Previously in February 2025, Fox News journalist John Roberts had asked Bondi if the Justice Department would be publishing "the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients", to which Bondi responded: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that." Bondi also previously claimed there were "tens of thousands of videos" showing Epstein "with children or child porn," a claim later walked back by FBI Director Kash Patel. The contradictions drew criticism from some figures in the MAGA movement. Following the controversy, deputy director of the FBI Dan Bongino considered resigning from his position due to his disagreement with Bondi over how the Justice Department handled the announcement of its decision not to release further records related to Epstein. President Trump defended Bondi, posting on Truth Social that she was doing "a FANTASTIC JOB" in her role. According to CNN, "Privately, Trump has also doubled down on his support for Bondi." The Wall Street Journal later reported that, during a briefing on the Justice Department's review of the files in May, Bondi informed Trump that his name was included among the documents.
In August 2025, Bondi announced on Twitter that the Department of Justice and the State Department were increasing the reward to $50 million for Nicolás Maduro, accusing the Venezuelan president of collaborating with foreign terrorist organizations, such as Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Cartel of the Suns, to bring deadly violence to the United States. Maduro was previously indicted by the first Trump administration in 2020, along with other Venezuelan officials and former Colombian FARC members, for what it described as "narco-terrorism": the trafficking of cocaine to the United States to wage a health war on its citizens. The reward was originally set at $15 million in March 2020 before being raised to $25 million by the Biden administration in January 2025. In a Fox News interview, Bondi stated that the DOJ had seized approximately $700 million in assets linked to Maduro. The assets allegedly included multiple luxury homes in Florida, a mansion in the Dominican Republic, private jets, vehicles, a horse farm, jewelry, and large sums of cash. Bondi described Maduro’s government as an "organized crime operation" that continued to function despite the seizures.
In September 2025, in response to the killing of Iryna Zarutska, Bondi said she would seek the death penalty for the perpetrator and that he would "never again see the light of day as a free man".
In September 2025, in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Bondi stated: "We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech." Her comments were criticized across the political spectrum, including by conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson and radio host Erick Erickson. After receiving bipartisan criticism, Bondi clarified that she was referring to hate speech involving threats of violence.
== Personal life ==
Bondi is of southern Italian descent, with roots in Campania. She married Garret Barnes in 1990; the couple divorced after 22 months of marriage. In 1996, Bondi married Scott Fitzgerald; they divorced in 2002. She was engaged to Greg Henderson in 2012. Since 2017, she has been in a relationship with John Wakefield.
== Electoral history ==
== See also ==
List of female justice ministers
List of female state attorneys general in the United States
List of female United States Cabinet members
List of first women lawyers and judges in Florida
== References ==
== External links ==
Pam Bondi at U.S. Department of Justice
Appearances on C-SPAN
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