On February 11, the arrow on the Trump administration’s “See ’n Say” pointed in the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spent four extremely contentious hours arguing with congressional Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, who questioned her about her handling of the Epstein files.
“Your theatrics are ridiculous,” she said, in a case of the pot calling the kettle black, to New York’s Jerry Nadler, who asked her if the Epstein files would lead to prosecutions. Bondi called Jamie Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, a “washed-up loser lawyer.” She accused Kentucky’s Thomas Massie of having Trump Derangement Syndrome and said Vermont’s Becca Balint, whose grandfather was killed in the Holocaust, merely paid lip service to fighting anti-Semitism. What she didn’t do was provide any answers.
The Justice Department is always, in ways subtle and overt, a highly political agency. But Bondi’s tenure has been more political than most, highlighted by her aggressive prosecutions of Donald Trump’s political enemies, such as James Comey and Letitia James, and her obfuscations over the Epstein files. It’s almost hard to remember that she was the reasonable choice, following Trump’s controversial nomination of Matt Gaetz, who had been under investigation for using illicit drugs, regularly paying women for sex and engaging in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl while he was in Congress. Gaetz denied all wrongdoing. Bondi had no such baggage.
In her confirmation hearing, she promised not to “weaponize” the Justice Department. “If confirmed,” she said, “I will work to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice – and each of its components. Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end. America must have one tier of justice for all.”
Bondi is Florida personified. After her birth there in 1965 to a professor and an elementary-school teacher, she graduated with a degree in criminal justice from the University of Florida and passed the Florida Bar in 1991. She spent 18 years as a prosecutor, specializing in child-abuse cases. Her most high-profile case involved prosecuting former baseball pitcher Dwight Gooden in 2006 for violating the terms of his probation. The next year, she dealt with guards at a Florida detention center accused of beating to death a black juvenile.
She was initially a Democrat, but crossed over to Republicanism in 2000. In 2010, she won election as Florida’s attorney general. Her early term was highlighted by a battle to shut down oxycodone dispensaries, strengthening state laws against human trafficking, defending a state effort to ban gay marriage and leading a multi-state effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Bondi had passed the loyalty test. She backed Trump in 2016, leading an RNC crowd in a ‘lock her up!’ chant
Bondi entered Trump’s immediate orbit in 2013, when allegations of fraud surrounding Trump University were piling up. Trump’s lawyers dismissed the allegations as false. Bondi refused to investigate. Not coincidentally, at the same time The Donald J. Trump Foundation made a $25,000 contribution to a political action committee associated with Bondi.
In September 2016, the IRS determined that the donation violated laws against political contributions from nonprofit organizations. A court ordered Trump to close the foundation in 2019. But Bondi had passed the loyalty test. She backed Trump in the 2016 election, leading a crowd at the RNC in a “lock her up!” chant about his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
When her term in Florida ended in 2019, she became a lobbyist with Ballard Partners, representing lucrative clients including Amazon, Uber, private prison contractors and, most significantly, the government of Qatar, her association with which came under scrutiny when she determined in 2025 that Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million luxury plane as a gift from the Qataris did not amount to a potential bribe.
Nonetheless, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that as long as Bondi serves as US Attorney General, she is not subject to any discipline by the Florida Bar for violations of ethics rules. Nice work if you can get it.
Four days after the 2020 election, Bondi appeared alongside Rudy Giuliani at the infamous Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference, where she asserted that Trump had won Pennsylvania and that dead people had “received ballots.” She also served on Trump’s legal defense team during his 2019 impeachment trial, leaving Ballard Partners to do so. She spent the Biden years working as the chair of the Center for Litigation at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank, crafting lawsuits to overthrow the results of elections. By 2024, she’d done all the legwork for her nomination.
“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years – She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!” said Trump, as he nominated her.
Bondi’s tenure has been framed by rapidly falling crime rates, for which she claims at least partial credit. “I cannot think of a policy outcome more important than protecting the lives of American citizens,” she said. But her main public exposure has come through the roiling narrative of the Epstein files.
When congressmen pressed Bondi on February 11 about investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators, she launched into a now-infamous rant about the stock market. “The Dow is over 50,000 right now, the S&P at almost 7,000 and the NASDAQ is smashing records. Americans’ 401(k)s and retirement savings are booming. That’s what we should be talking about,” she said.
When Raskin seemed to mock her from the dais, she said: “I don’t know why you’re laughing. You’re a great stock trader, as I hear, Raskin. What does the Dow have to do with anything? That’s what they just asked. Are you kidding?” With that, the Attorney General had become that day’s meme.
When asked about the speech later, Massie said: “She didn’t answer anything. She came here just ready to talk about the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ. It sounds kind of crazy to me.”
Comments