United States Legal professional Common Pam Bondi has emerged as one of the embattled prime officers within the administration of United States President Donald Trump, amid fallout over her dealing with of disclosures associated to the intercourse trafficking case of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has thus far stood by Bondi, who has been instrumental in his reshaping of the Division of Justice, however the president has continued to voice frustration that public fixation on the scandal – and criticism from each within his base and amongst his opponents – has refused to die down.
Democrats have adopted the difficulty as their universal political cudgel, whereas Republicans in Congress have promised to proceed their very own probe once they return from summer season recess, with plans to listen to testimony from Bondi, in addition to subpoena the case information and testimony from Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
Two lawmakers are even pushing a invoice that may compel Bondi to launch the paperwork in query, a transfer Republican Thomas Massie has stated is aimed toward “justice for the victims and transparency for Individuals”.
So who’s Bondi and the way did the 59-year-old lawyer basic come to be one in all Trump’s most loyal cupboard members?
What did Bondi do earlier than changing into lawyer basic?
Bondi spent 18 years as a public prosecutor in Hillsborough County, Florida earlier than breaking into statewide workplace.
The prolonged profession gave her extra direct prosecutorial expertise than any previous US lawyer basic, according to the Heritage Basis, the conservative group that has had an outsized role in shaping the coverage of Trump’s second time period.
Talking final yr to the Tampa Bay Instances, former colleagues recounted Bondi’s status for jury-turning charisma that noticed her rapidly rise by way of the ranks of felony prosecutions.
But it surely was common media appearances as a authorized analyst on nationwide information networks that helped her to construct public recognition, which was credited together with her victory in Florida’s open lawyer basic race in 2010. Bondi, who took workplace in 2011, was additionally buoyed by the endorsement of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
As lawyer basic, Bondi led crusades in opposition to so-called “capsule mills”, clinics that loosely prescribe ache drugs, whereas main some Republican pet causes, together with a multi-state effort to overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature Reasonably priced Care Act.
She additionally led efforts to uphold Florida’s ban on similar intercourse marriage, earlier than its nationwide legalisation by Supreme Courtroom order in 2015, in addition to the power for similar intercourse {couples} to undertake.
Throughout that interval, Bondi sought to ascertain herself as a champion in opposition to intercourse trafficking and youngster intercourse abuse, launching the state’s council on human trafficking and an investigation into previous abuse by Catholic monks.
As Florida’s prime cop, she additionally had her first brush with Epstein, with critics accusing her of remaining willfully silent on a controversial non-prosecution settlement Epstein and his co-conspirators had struck together with her predecessor.
They’ve stated Bondi may have intervened as victims launched lawsuits difficult the deal, which noticed Epstein plead responsible to soliciting a minor for prostitution however serve solely months in jail.
“However Bondi stored her distance from the state’s most distinguished sex-trafficking case, at the same time as Epstein’s victims pleaded with the courts to invalidate provisions of his non-prosecution settlement and filed lawsuits alleging he abused them when he was on work launch from jail,” wrote Mary Ellen Klas, a Bloomberg opinion author and former Miami Herald Bureau Chief.
“Her inaction helped to perpetuate what victims describe as a authorities cover-up that, together with Epstein’s dying, has robbed these victims of their likelihood to get solutions and maintain their abusers to account,” she wrote.
How did Bondi enter Trump’s orbit?
Bondi’s connections with Trump drew scrutiny even earlier than he entered workplace, after it was revealed in 2016 that authorities had launched an ethics probe associated to the soon-to-be president. At query was whether or not Bondi had solicited contributions from Trump in 2013, as her workplace was weighing becoming a member of a lawsuit in opposition to Trump College.
Her workplace denied any wrongdoing, and the investigation was later dropped.
Regardless of these early contacts, Bondi was not an early adherent to Trump’s presidential ambitions or his nascent “Make America Nice Once more” motion.
As an alternative, she initially supported former Florida Governor Jeb Bush within the 2016 Republican major. When Jeb dropped out of the race, she threw her lot in with Trump. From there, issues accelerated rapidly.
Whereas nonetheless Florida’s lawyer basic, Bondi served on Trump’s first White Home transition workforce. She left her submit in Florida in 2019 and shortly joined the Ballard Lobbyist group, representing the pursuits of Amazon, Common Motors, and Uber, amongst others.
From there, she joined the White Home authorized workforce, defending the president throughout his first impeachment trial within the US Senate, by which Trump was accused of conditioning weapons to Ukraine in change for filth on then political opponent Biden.
After Trump’s election loss, Bondi was amongst these spearheading unfounded claims that the vote was marred by widespread fraud. She helped coordinate former New York Metropolis Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s notorious information convention on the 4 Seasons Landscaping in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the place she flatly and falsely claimed that Trump had “received Pennsylvania”.
She went on to chair the America First Coverage Institute (AFPI), a pro-Trump suppose tank that oversaw “a collection of regarding lawsuits lately, notably within the voting rights and elections enviornment”, as described by the Brennan Heart for Justice. Publicly, she additionally floated prosecuting profession federal legislation enforcement officers who investigated Trump.
In criticising her appointment, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in January said that Bondi had “the last word qualification” to be Trump’s lawyer basic: “loyalty”.
Bondi’s tenure on the Justice Division
That loyalty has generated a lot consternation since Bondi took workplace, with opponents accusing her of shaping the nation’s prime legislation enforcement company in Trump’s likeness.
That has included tons of of layoffs on the division, together with investigators and prosecutors within the two federal legal instances lodged in opposition to Trump earlier than his November election victory final yr.
She has additionally launched a job drive to probe these investigations, whereas publicly decrying what she has framed as a conspiracy in opposition to Trump amid the profession workers, saying the workers of the FBI and Justice Division had been rife with workers “who despise Donald Trump, despise us”, as she instructed Fox Information.
Extra not too long ago, she launched a strike drive to research how the intelligence group, beneath former President Obama, dealt with info associated to Russian affect within the 2016 presidential election, in what some have seen as an try to distract from the Epstein imbroglio.
She has additionally introduced a misconduct grievance in opposition to federal Decide James Boasberg, escalating a standoff over judges who’ve dominated in opposition to Trump’s early actions, most notably his use of the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members with little requirement for proof.
But it surely was Bondi’s embrace of theories pushed by Trump’s staunchest supporters that has landed her within the present predicament. In February, she openly instructed Fox Information that she had Epstein’s long-sought “consumer listing” – thought to include the names of the highly effective figures the billionaire blackmailed by way of his intercourse scheme – “sitting on my desk proper now”.
Months later, the White Home would say Bondi was referring to the whole thing of Epstein’s case information, and never particularly the listing lengthy sought by MAGA’s most influential voices.
That got here shortly after the Justice Division in July launched a memo, stating flatly: “This systematic assessment revealed no incriminating ‘consumer listing’”.