United States Attorney General Pam Bondi and her Department of Justice have consistently made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Her appointment for the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, had a swift downfall and was removed from her position by a judge, a humiliation which also befell Alina Habba after her unlawful appointment. Bondi’s own (mis)handling of the Epstein files has led to her being subpoenaed by Congress. Perhaps most embarrassing of all, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to yell at her for not doing enough to take down his political enemies. All of this may have Bondi wishing for the easy days of 2018, when she was auditioning for a very different job.
As Bondi’s tenure as Florida’s attorney general was coming to an end, she spent three days co-hosting the Fox News show “The Five.” In August 2018, she filled in a spot left vacant by none other than Kimberly Guilfoyle, who had started dating Donald Trump Jr. just months prior. Bondi’s move to spend a week in New York filming a daily news show didn’t go unnoticed by the people of Florida. A state’s attorney general is certainly a full-time position, so Bondi’s gig left many wondering why she seemed to be auditioning for a new job while still being paid by Florida’s taxpayers.
The Miami Herald looked into Bondi’s unprecedented move and was told by a spokesperson for the AG that the Florida Commission on Ethics signed off on Bondi’s decision to play TV star for three days. When asked why they felt it was appropriate for the Florida Attorney General to leave her state to co-host a Fox News show, the spokesperson responded, “She is often on national news.” While that was true, Bondi’s other TV appearances were, as the Herald pointed out, short interview segments, and not co-hosting entire shows for “highly partisan debates.”
This wasn’t the only scandal Pam Bondi faced while working as Florida’s AG
While Pam Bondi has had plenty of awkward moments as Donald Trump’s attorney general, her scandals didn’t start when she joined the administration. During her time as Florida AG, Bondi found herself enmeshed in numerous controversies. In 2011, shortly after starting her first term as the state’s chief legal officer, Bondi fired two assistant attorneys general who were investigating mortgage lending service Black Knight, then known as Lender Processing Services, which had donated to her campaign. While Bondi’s office, per FlaglerLive, said the assistant attorneys were fired for poor performance, Representative Darren Soto pointed out that the explanation didn’t match the reality that the two attorneys “were in the midst of successful mortgage fraud litigation.” That was hardly the only time Bondi used her office to seemingly shield corporations from accountability, either.
Two years later, Bondi came under scrutiny when she asked Governor Rick Scott to reschedule the execution of Marshall Lee Gore so that she could attend a fundraiser for her re-election campaign. When the reason for the rescheduling was revealed, Bondi tried to explain it away, saying that Gore’s date had already been changed twice before, but neglected to mention that the previous delays were due to legal proceedings and not for a campaign event.
Just a month after that, Bondi found herself in a scandal that included her future boss, Donald Trump. When Bondi’s office announced that it was reviewing allegations against Trump University, the billionaire donated $25,000 to her campaign via one of his charities. Not long after, Bondi decided against pursuing the Trump University case. It was later reported that Bondi personally reached out to Trump for a donation. This, along with a string of other allegations, led to Trump being forced to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation via court order. It was also likely one of the first steps on Bondi’s path to United States Attorney General.
