During her eight years as Florida’s top lawyer, Pam Bondi was a leading challenger of the Obama administration’s environmental policies.
If she is confirmed to serve as the nation’s attorney general, she would oversee the department that would help the Trump administration cement the rollback of Obama-era safeguards against water pollution, air contamination and climate change.
Bondi, a key legal ally of President-elect Donald Trump, has also defended him against impeachment and bolstered his efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump wrote Thursday night on Truth Social, just hours after his first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, announced his withdrawal. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,”
He continued: “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!”
Bondi, the first woman to serve as Florida attorney general, left the office in 2019 and later joined Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with strong ties to Trump. She has also worked for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank staffed by Trump administration alumni with an eye toward setting a policy agenda for his second term.
Among the group’s stated ambitions: increase oil and gas production and fire more federal employees.
Bondi, who holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and a law degree from Stetson University, spent the early years of her legal career as a prosecutor for the Sunshine State.
While Bondi isn’t mired in the scandals that dogged Gaetz’s selection for the attorney general post, progressive groups said she could still do harm as the leader of the Department of Justice.
“Not being Matt Gaetz does not qualify you to be attorney general of the United States,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the group Public Citizen, in a statement.
He continued: “In short, we should expect an Attorney General Bondi to lead a Department of Injustice. Americans deserve better.”
Here are five things to know about Bondi:
1. She has sued over EPA rules
As Florida attorney general, Bondi faced pushback from environmental groups in her state for her opposition to a signature Obama-era climate rule.
The state was among the challengers of the Clean Power Plan, which sought to address carbon emissions from power plants by transitioning facilities away from coal and toward renewable sources. The rule has since been repealed by the Trump administration, invalidated by the Supreme Court and replaced by Biden’s EPA.
If she becomes U.S. attorney general, Bondi would give orders to the DOJ division that would defend an expected rollback of the Biden administration’s more limited power plant rule.
Bondi has also challenged EPA rules for power plant startups and shutdowns and limits on pollution that washes into waterways.
2. She targeted other Obama policies on health care, gay rights
In addition to fighting environmental protections advanced under the Obama administration, Bondi as Florida attorney general also went to court against the Affordable Care Act and defended a state ban on marriage for same-sex couples.
After the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, CNN reporter Anderson Cooper asked Bondi in an interview whether her expressions of support for the LGBTQ+ community after the tragedy were hypocritical.
“Do you really think you’re a champion of the gay community?” Cooper asked, citing her fight against marriage equality in the state.
Bondi replied that she was simply defending the Florida Constitution, as she promised to do when she took her oath of office.
“It had nothing to do — I’ve never said I don’t like gay people,” she said. “That’s ridiculous.”
3. She took on BP after the Deepwater Horizon spill
Under Bondi’s leadership, Florida joined other Gulf Coast states in suing BP and contractor Halliburton after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Florida and Mississippi launched their legal challenge in 2013, three years after Louisiana and Alabama.
While oil from the spill did not reach most of Florida’s coast, the state argued that its tourism industry was affected because people did not want to visit the Gulf of Mexico after the disaster.
In 2015, Bondi announced that the state would receive more than $3.25 billion to resolve economic losses.
4. She lobbied on EV tax credits
After her time as Florida attorney general, Bondi lobbied for GM as the automaker sought to extend tax credits that help make electric vehicles more affordable for consumers.
The fate of the EV market in a second Trump term is not yet clear.
On the one hand, the president-elect has brought on Tesla CEO Elon Musk as one of his key deregulatory agents and allies, and his policies on mine permitting are expected to accelerate a battery boom.
On the other, Trump has been a vocal opponent of EV mandates.
5. She is a fierce Trump ally
Bondi is perhaps best known for one quality: her loyalty to Trump.
She defended Trump during his impeachment trial, appeared with him on the 2024 campaign trail and helped him fight his loss to Biden in 2020.
While she was Florida attorney general, Trump donated $25,000 to a political action committee supporting her reelection. Bondi drew scrutiny when, after receiving the donation, she chose not to pursue litigation against Trump University for fraud.
Doug Lindner, senior director of judiciary and democracy at the League of Conservation Voters, said Bondi has demonstrated her willingness to defend even the president-elect’s most controversial positions — at all costs.
“No one is above the law, but the President-elect has repeatedly promised and tried to manipulate the Justice Department to protect himself and his allies while persecuting political opponents and dissenters,” Lindner said in a statement. “Trump’s latest prospective nominee to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer shows this new administration will serve his own corrupt and dangerous ends while threatening the rights of the people and protections for our communities and environment.”
