Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general and Trump loyalist, said she would resist White House pressure if confirmed
Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, offered limited assurances on Wednesday that she would maintain the justice department’s traditional independence from White House political pressure at her confirmation hearing before the Senate judiciary committee.
The consensus across the committee was that Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and longtime state prosecutor, was sufficiently qualified and experienced to lead the department in Trump’s second term.
But her strong personal loyalty to Trump, a quality that endeared her to the president-elect and allowed her to become the nominee, was viewed with alarm by Democrats concerned that she would find it challenging to resist any pressure exerted on the department.
On that issue, Bondi suggested she would uphold policies that limit White House contacts with department officials and would not allow the FBI to be used to pursue Trump’s perceived political enemies, as identified on a list drawn up by FBI director nominee Kash Patel.
“I will meet with the White House counsel and appropriate officials and follow the contacts policy,” Bondi said, adding later that there would “never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice”.
But that was the extent of Bondi’s interest in allaying concerns about her loyalty to Trump, as she gave boilerplate responses that dodged questions from Democrats over whether Trump lost the 2020 election and deflected trickier questions about Trump’s past statements.
Pressed on her own remarks about her interest in “prosecuting the prosecutors” – comments widely seen as being aimed at the prosecutors who indicted Trump – Bondi deflected and complained about a prosecutor who had doctored an application for a warrant during the Russia investigation.
That was one of several instances in which Bondi responded to scrutiny from Democrats in a way that will be sure to please Trump, including when she declined to say that he lost the 2020 election and instead told lawmakers she accepted the results and that Joe Biden was president.
Regardless of her personal beliefs on the matter, Bondi was always going to have to deliver such a response that has become the standard reply for anyone looking to retain the confidence of a mercurial Trump, who could sink her nomination if she were to abruptly come out against him.
But Bondi is widely seen as actually sharing Trump’s continued belief that the 2020 election was stolen from him, based on her support for the president-elect’s fabricated claims of election fraud after previously working to defend him at his first impeachment trial.
That loyalty to Trump has raised hackles at the justice department, which prides itself on its independence from White House pressure and recalls with a deep fear how Trump in his first term ousted top officials when they stopped acquiescing to his demands.
Trump replaced his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, after he recused himself from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia and, later, soured on his last attorney general, William Barr, after he refused to endorse Trump’s false 2020 election claims.
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Bondi also faced questions from Democrats about possible conflicts of interest arising from her most recent work for the major corporate lobbying firm Ballard Partners, especially on behalf of government contractors like the Geo Group, a Bureau of Prisons contractor accused of mismanagement.
As the chair of Ballard’s corporate regulatory compliance practice, Bondi has also lobbied for major companies that have battled the justice department she will be tasked with leading, including in various antitrust and fraud lawsuits.
If she were presented with an instance of possible conflict of interest, “I will consult with the career ethics officials within the Department of Justice and make the appropriate decision”, Bondi said. She declined to say upfront whether she would recuse herself.
Bondi graduated in 1987 from the University of Florida and earned her law degree in 1990 from Stetson University. She was a county prosecutor in Florida before successfully running for Florida attorney general in 2010 in part due to regular appearances on Fox News.
During Bondi’s tenure as Florida attorney general, in 2013 her office received nearly two-dozen complaints about Trump University and her aides have said she once considered joining a multi-state lawsuit brought on behalf of students who claimed they had been cheated.
As she was weighing the lawsuit, Bondi’s political action committee received a $25,000 contribution from a non-profit funded by Trump. While Trump and Bondi both deny a quid pro quo, Bondi never joined the lawsuit and Trump had to pay a $2,500 fine for violating tax laws to make the donation.
