United States Lawyer Common Pam Bondi has emerged as probably the most 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 inside his base and amongst his opponents – has refused to die down.
Democrats have adopted the problem as their newest political cudgel, whereas Republicans in Congress have promised to proceed their very own probe after they return from summer time recess, with plans to listen to testimony from Bondi, in addition to subpoena the case recordsdata 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 mentioned is aimed toward “justice for the victims and transparency for Individuals”.
So who’s Bondi and the way did the 59-year-old legal professional normal come to be one among Trump’s most loyal cupboard members?
What did Bondi do earlier than changing into legal professional normal?
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 legal professional normal, in accordance to the Heritage Basis, the conservative group that has had an outsized function in shaping the coverage of Trump’s second time period.
Talking final yr to the Tampa Bay Occasions, former colleagues recounted Bondi’s fame for jury-turning charisma that noticed her shortly rise via the ranks of felony prosecutions.
Nevertheless it was common media appearances as a authorized analyst on nationwide information networks that helped her to construct public recognition, which was credited along with her victory in Florida’s open legal professional normal 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 legal professional normal, Bondi led crusades towards so-called “tablet 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 Inexpensive 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 determine herself as a champion towards 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 along with her predecessor.
They’ve mentioned 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 outstanding sex-trafficking case, whilst 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 demise, has robbed these victims of their probability to get solutions and maintain their abusers to account,” she wrote.
Then-Florida legal professional normal Pam Bondi, proper, speaks as Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, centre, and his spouse Ann, left, look on throughout a marketing campaign rally, Sunday, October 7, 2012, in Port St Lucie, Florida (Lynne Sladky/AP Picture)
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 towards 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 a substitute, 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 shortly.
Whereas nonetheless Florida’s legal professional normal, Bondi served on Trump’s first White Home transition staff. She left her put up 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 staff, 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 grime 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 “gained 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 Middle 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 mentioned that Bondi had “the final word qualification” to be Trump’s legal professional normal: “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 a whole lot of layoffs on the division, together with investigators and prosecutors within the two federal felony circumstances lodged towards Trump earlier than his November election victory final yr.
She has additionally launched a process power to probe these investigations, whereas publicly decrying what she has framed as a conspiracy towards Trump amid the profession employees, saying the employees of the FBI and Justice Division have been rife with staff “who despise Donald Trump, despise us”, as she advised Fox Information.
Extra just lately, she launched a strike power to analyze how the intelligence group, beneath former President Obama, dealt with data associated to Russian affect within the 2016 presidential election, in what some have seen as an try to distract from the Epstein imbroglio.
Lawyer Common Pam Bondi speaks at a information convention on the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Picture)
She has additionally introduced a misconduct criticism towards federal Decide James Boasberg, escalating a standoff over judges who’ve dominated towards 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.
Nevertheless it was Bondi’s embrace of theories pushed by Trump’s staunchest supporters that has landed her within the present predicament. In February, she openly advised Fox Information that she had Epstein’s long-sought “shopper record” – thought to comprise 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 recordsdata, and never particularly the record 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 evaluate revealed no incriminating ‘shopper record’”.
