Pam Bondi – Britannica
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Pam Bondi is a lawyer who was the U.S. attorney general (2025–2026) in the Republican administration of Pres. Donald Trump until being fired in April 2026. She previously served as the first female attorney general of Florida (2011–19).
Pam Bondi, who had served as attorney general during Pres. Donald Trump’s second administration, was fired by Trump in April 2026. Trump had become increasingly frustrated with Bondi’s running of the Department of Justice during her 14-month tenure. At the president’s insistence her department had sought indictments against some of the president’s rivals, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin. In each case, grand juries refused to return indictments, which is very unusual.
It was Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files, however, that drew the greatest amount of criticism – from Democrats, fellow Republicans, and ultimately the president. In a February appearance before Congress, Bondi refused to apologize to, or even look at, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse present in the chamber. Trump announced that Bondi’s former deputy and Trump’s former personal attorney Todd Blanche would become Acting Attorney General.
Pam Bondi studied criminal justice at the University of Florida (B.A., 1987), and in 1990 she received a law degree from Stetson University.
Pam Bondi has been married twice: Garret Barnes (1990–92) and Scott Fitzgerald (1996–2002).
In 2020 Pam Bondi worked as a defense attorney for Pres. Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial in the Senate.
Pam Bondi (born November 17, 1965, Tampa, Florida, U.S.) was the polarizing attorney general (2025–2026 ) in the second administration of Republican Pres. Donald Trump. Bondi had been at the center of some of the administration’s most controversial actions, including pursuing indictments of perceived enemies of the president and quashing investigations into the killings of American citizens by federal agents during immigration crackdowns. However, nothing had been more contentious than her handling of the Justice Department’s investigation of the Epstein files. In April 2026, Trump fired her, replacing her in the interim with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Bondi is one of three children born to Joseph Bondi and Patsy Loretta (née Hammer) Bondi. Her father was a professor who, from 1974 to 1978, also served as mayor of the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, and her mother was an elementary school teacher. Pam Bondi studied criminal justice at the University of Florida (B.A., 1987), and in 1990 she received a law degree from Stetson University.
Bondi subsequently became a prosecutor in the state attorney’s office in Hillsborough county, Florida, where she worked for 18 years. Bondi was known for a personable style in the courtroom, which helped her connect with jurors. She also branched out as a legal analyst, often appearing as a guest on Fox News and CNN. In 2010 she ran for state attorney general and was endorsed by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Riding the Tea Party wave, Bondi won the election. She took office the following year, becoming the state’s first female attorney general. She was reelected in 2014.
As attorney general Bondi targeted “pill mills,” clinics that illegally sell prescription drugs, which contributed to the opioid crisis in the United States. She also defended the state’s law banning same-sex marriage, and she led a multistate lawsuit that sought—unsuccessfully—to repeal Pres. Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Bondi also developed a reputation for supporting animal welfare, championing a ballot measure banning greyhound racing in the state and shutting down a puppy mill.
In the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Bondi initially backed fellow Floridian Jeb Bush, the state’s former governor. But after he dropped out, she endorsed Trump, even though another candidate from the state, Sen. Marco Rubio, was still in the race. Bondi and Trump had something of a history. In 2013, when she was Florida attorney general, she chose not to probe fraud charges against Trump University soon after his family foundation had donated $25,000 to a pro-Bondi political action committee. However, a state ethics panel cleared her of violating any Florida laws. Trump won the 2016 election, and Bondi was a member of his transition team.
Bondi was unable to seek a third term as attorney general of Florida because of term limits, and she left office in 2019. That year she became a corporate lobbyist for Ballard Partners, and her clients included Amazon and Uber. She took a break from that job in 2020 to work as a defense attorney for Trump during his first impeachment trial in the Senate; it ended with his acquittal (see Ukraine scandal). After his loss in the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, she backed Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. When a New York City jury convicted the then former president in a hush-money case in 2024, Bondi said during a Fox News interview that “a tremendous amount of trust is lost in the justice system tonight.”
After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, he initially named Rep. Matt Gaetz as his pick for U.S. attorney general. However, Gaetz soon withdrew from consideration in the face of allegations concerning sexual misconduct and drug use. Trump then selected Bondi for the post.
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During her Senate confirmation hearing, Bondi insisted that she would run the Department of Justice (DOJ) free from political considerations, declaring, “If I am the attorney general, I will not politicize that office.” But her assurances did little to assuage Democrats, especially when she refused to rule out investigating former DOJ special counsel Jack Smith, who had indicted Trump on various charges. On February 5, 2025, the Senate confirmed Bondi in a mostly party-line vote, 54–46; the only Democratic senator to vote for her was John Fetterman from Pennsylvania. She was sworn in the next day, and during the ceremony she said, “I will restore integrity to the Justice Department, and I will fight violent crime throughout this country and throughout this world, and I will make America safe again.”
Soon after taking office, Bondi released a series of memos that indicated significant changes for the DOJ. One note announced the creation of the Weaponization Working Group, which she said was to end “abuses of the criminal justice process” by law enforcement. In the memo she named several prosecutors who had previously brought charges against Trump. She also announced that the DOJ would stop diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it deems illegal and halt federal funding to sanctuary cities; the term applies to places that limit enforcement of federal immigration laws in order to protect undocumented immigrants. Later in February 2025 the DOJ announced that it was dropping corruption charges against Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, which is a sanctuary city. The department argued, in part, that the case was limiting Adams’s ability to enforce Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The decision sparked a number of federal prosecutors to resign, and critics alleged a quid pro quo.
Also in February 2025 Bondi made news when she released files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and sex offender who had died by suicide in prison while facing charges of sex trafficking. However, the documents were heavily redacted and contained little new information. That month she also said that the FBI had given her Epstein’s so-called “client list” and that her department would investigate the names on the document. However, in July 2025 the FBI and DOJ announced that no such list existed.
The Epstein Files: A Timeline
During this time, Bondi also defended the Trump administration’s deportation of immigrants, especially those accused of being gang members. In March 2025 a federal judge verbally ordered the halt of deportation flights. However, a number of flights reportedly left the United States before the judge issued a written order. During an interview on Fox News, Bondi said that the judge did not have the power to intrude on the president’s authority.
In August 2025 Bondi announced that the DOJ was investigating the administration of former Pres. Barack Obama over its inquiry into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. She said that a grand jury was going to be convened for possible federal indictments. This came weeks after National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard had alleged that Obama and his national security team had carried out a “treasonous conspiracy” against Trump, “manufacturing” evidence to make it appear that Russia had helped Trump win the election.
Throughout 2025 and into 2026, Bondi’s Justice Department was dogged by controversy. In the wake of the federal immigration enforcement action in Minnesota that led to the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the Justice Department quashed an investigation into Good’s death initiated by federal prosecutors in Minnesota. When attorneys resigned in protest, Bondi said they “suddenly decided they didn’t want to support the men and women at ICE.”
The Justice Department has also failed to secure grand jury indictments in a number of high-profile cases featuring Trump opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin. It is highly unusual for a grand jury to refuse to return an indictment sought by the Justice Department.
But far and away the biggest controversy that swirled around Bondi involved the release of the Epstein files. The Justice Department missed a December 2025 deadline for releasing largely un-redacted files, finally releasing some three million documents on January 30, 2026. In the aftermath of the “client list” fiasco, Bondi delegated much of the public-facing handling of releases to her deputy Todd Blanche. But on February 11, 2026, Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, during which she sparred with lawmakers for more than four hours. In barbed testimony and an occasionally raised voice, Bondi largely failed to answer questions, including ones about which Epstein coconspirators were being investigated and who was responsible for the release of some names of Epstein survivors. When a committee member asked Bondi if she would apologize to the women, a number of whom sat in the gallery behind Bondi, she instead attacked the member for “theatrics.”
In March 2026, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi to testify before the committee about the Justice Department’s Epstein files investigation. Five Republicans voted with Democrats to approve the subpoena, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina. The committee asked Bondi to appear on April 14, but a week before her scheduled testimony she said she would not appear as she was no longer the attorney general. .
From 1990 to 1992 Bondi was married to Garret Barnes. In 1996 she wed Scott Fitzgerald; they divorced six years later.
