Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office in 2013 faced with a decision: Whether we’ll join investigations by other state attorneys general into Trump University, where students paid up to $35,000 for business classes that critics say are bogus.
Despite receiving complaints of abuse from students, Bondi and then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris both refused to join the investigation. Both received political donations from Donald Trump and denied that the funds influenced their office’s decision.
Since then, the two former state attorneys general have followed opposite political paths. Harris attacked Trump in the 2020 and 2024 elections, calling him a business fraud and a threat to democracy. Trump won the elections again earlier this month.
For the past decade, Bondi has defended Trump and attacked those who investigated him. Now, if confirmed by the Senate, it is set to become Bondi President-elect Trump’s attorney general.
The key question is whether Bondi will follow through on vows in television interviews to investigate what he called out-of-control federal prosecutors and FBI agents.
“The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” – Bondi Fox News said after Trump last year He is accused in Georgia On charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 elections. “Investigators will investigate.”
Bondi called the prosecutors who charged Trump with crimes members of the “deep state” — spreading a bogus conspiracy theory that DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents were part of a secret cabal trying to undermine Trump. Bondi said, without referring to the evidence, that since it was no longer “hiding in the shadows … they can all be investigated.”
Bondi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Current and former Justice Department officials have had mixed reactions to Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general hours after Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has repeatedly denied allegations that he paid prostitutes and had sex with a minor. withdrawn from consideration.
DOJ officials said they viewed Bondi as a more favorable choice than Gaetz because of his long career as a local prosecutor and Florida attorney general. At the same time, they see him as a Trump loyalist who they fear won’t hesitate to follow through on his efforts to investigate his enemies.
“I would expect him to do exactly what Trump wants him to do,” said a recently retired senior Justice Department official. He added that members of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team are very concerned and are talking to attorneys.
on Friday, Washington Post, Citing two people close to Trump’s transition, Trump said he intends to fire Smith and the entire team that helped Smith, and indict Trump on federal charges. proper handling of confidential documents and attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The Post also said Trump expects the Justice Department to investigate his long-discredited allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Former Trump attorneys general
Trump’s last attorney general, William Barr, dismissed Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020 and declined to open a Justice Department investigation, citing a lack of evidence. After making it public that he was there there is no evidence of widespread fraudBarr resigned.
As Trump tries to appoint Geoffrey ClarkeHalf a dozen DOJ leaders have threatened to resign as soon as a DOJ official who supports his bogus 2020 fraud claims becomes acting attorney general. Three days later, Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol preventing his defeat from being confirmed.
Meanwhile, Bondi, He supported Trump’s fraud claims. He traveled to Philadelphia and held press conferences where he promoted false allegations of widespread election fraud and insisted that the election was stolen from Trump.
“We know the ballots were thrown.” Bondi said. “We’ve heard that people are getting dead ballots. It’s happening all over the country.”
Bondi also defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, arguing that the president was unfairly investigated. during
Bondi is currently a partner at the lobbying firm Ballard Partners and leads the firm’s corporate regulatory compliance practice. the firm’s website.
Some Florida attorneys defended Bondi, saying he followed the rules as the state’s attorney general. Dave Aronberg, State’s Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, He informed the Washington Post about it Bondi will be better for the DOJ than Gaetz.
“He’s business-minded and loyal to his colleagues, which means he’s not going to try to fire anyone because they’re a Democrat or an apolitical career prosecutor,” Aronberg told the Post. “He believes in the rule of law.”
The question now is whether Bondi will follow through on his public promise to “prosecutor prosecutors” if confirmed. And if he refuses to prosecute prosecutors for political reasons, he will be forced out by Trump, just like his predecessors.
A former DOJ official who worked during the first Trump administration said he didn’t know Bondi well, but he did know Trump.
“I think that whoever he chooses, he should be loyal to him first. “This is a major test for him. I don’t expect him to choose someone who is honorable and loyal to the Constitution over him.”