Confirmed as United States Attorney General in 2025, these are the individuals shaping the decisions that undermine democracy.
Following previous Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration, Donald Trump swiftly nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to the role. Bondi’s history of targeting Trump’s political opponents, who Trump himself dubbed as “vermin,” is a significant cause for concern in light of Trump’s vows of retaliation. Bondi has, in recent years, demonstrated her loyalty to Trump, a key requirement for nomination, and her ability to become Trump’s primary political weapon. Among other things, she became a leading figure in the election denialism movement, participated in Trump’s impeachment defense, and supported his election denialism in court, in addition to her own legal advocacy to restrict marginalized communities’ rights, central tenets of Project 2025 and America First Policy Institute, where she worked.
In Her Own Words:
“The prosecutors will be prosecuted… the investigators will be investigated.”
– Pam Bondi on FOX News, November 2023
“Lock her up. I love that”
– Pam Bondi at the 2016 Republican National Convention
“Disrupting Florida’s existing marriage laws would impose significant public harm… Florida’s marriage laws have a close, direct and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units.”
– Pam Bondi, pushing for a freeze on appeals to the state’s gay marriage ban, arguing against gay and lesbian couples suing Florida for their same-sex marriage rights, 2014
“This kid was out there trying to help people. Were people killed? Absolutely… But again, we don’t know yet. You’ve got a little boy out there trying to protect his community.”
– Pam Bondi after Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two, during a racial justice protest in 2021
Trump’s Personal Legal Aide and Election Denier
Bondi has been at the forefront of Trump’s election denialist movement since 2020, spreading discredited claims that the election was stolen, particularly in Pennsylvania along with Rudy Giuliani. Bondi insisted that she had “evidence of cheating,” escalating her claims into threats by saying “we are not going anywhere until they declare we (Trump) won Pennsylvania.” At the same time, Bondi targeted Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar for her supposed attempts to “change the rules of the game.” Bondi’s justification for this onslaught was based on accusations that “fake ballots” (i.e., ballots coming in late) were being counted and therefore “discount[ing] every legal vote that [came] in.”
Her attempts to curry favor with Trump and affirm his power as president continued this year as head of the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a “think tank” designed to support Trump’s political agenda including removing “woke” materials in schools, reducing legal paths for immigration, and removing Biden’s expanded Title IX protections. She spent the year filing voting lawsuits in several battleground states, including one lawsuit in May 2024 against the Board of Elections in Fulton County, Georgia. This unsuccessful lawsuit was made on the behalf of a board member who did not want to certify an election based on suspicion of fraud. The arguments were rejected by a county judge, who stated “our Constitution and our election code do not allow for that to happen.”
Bondi made sure to support Trump in other controversial ways, pushing anti-democratic rhetoric like leading “Lock Her Up!” chants against former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Republican National Convention, praising the chant by saying “Lock her up. I love that.” She later served as a special assistant to Trump’s defense team during his impeachment trials, and then supported Trump by attending his hush money trial this year, for which he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. In a recent radio appearance, Bondi accused Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was, until late November, leading Trump’s election interference and classified documents cases, and other prosecutors who targeted Trump, of being “horrible” people who are “weaponizing our legal system.” Her legal advocacy for AFPI also includes the bemoaning of judges who refused to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from charging Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn the Georgia election results in 2020 (scheduled arguments have now been cancelled in the case), saying “there is no law, code of conduct, or professional responsibility the Left won’t discard in their obsession to get Trump.”
Leveraging the Law Against LGBTQ+ Rights
Bondi has, for a decade, campaigned against LGBTQ+ rights. During her time as Florida’s Attorney General, she pushed for a freeze on appeals to the state’s gay marriage ban, arguing against gay and lesbian couples suing Florida for their same-sex marriage rights. She claimed that allowing same-sex marriage in Florida would “impose significant public harm” and adversely affect the “direct and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units.” She filed appeals in three state court cases after judges ruled against Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage, claiming that defending discrimination against LGBTQ+ couples is “me doing my job as Attorney General,” and that she’s “just getting started.”
Her more recent work with AFPI allowed her to continue her efforts to dismantle LGBTQ+ rights, representing two sets of Colorado public school parents who were filing a lawsuit because their children allegedly attended “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” meetings without their knowledge, while accusing school officials of encouraging students to keep their attendance a secret and to express their gender fluidity. The case was thrown out by a federal judge in May 2024, although another AFPI lawyer will be arguing the appeal this coming January.
Bondi’s Once-Promising Career Tainted By Political Ambition
Bondi comes from a long line of Floridians, including her father, Joseph Bondi, who served as mayor of her hometown, Temple Terrace, Florida. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from the University of Florida, followed by her Juris Doctor from Stetson Law School. Bondi quickly rose up the ranks, prosecuting high-profile murder cases and appearing on FOX News as a part-time legal expert.
In 2010, Bondi successfully ran for Attorney General of Florida, becoming the first female to fill that role in the state’s history, serving in that position from 2011 to 2019. In 2012, she was at the forefront of the unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge against the Affordable Care Act over its requirement that “employers provide coverage for contraception in their employer-sponsored healthcare plans.”
Bondi took a $25,000 campaign contribution, which she solicited from Trump in 2013, around the same time her office received 22 complaints of fraud against Trump University, for which she was contemplating whether to join the lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General against the company. Bondi later said her office only considered one of the complaints credible, therefore choosing not to pursue the case. These actions led her to be accused of bribery by a Massachusetts attorney, but in 2017, it was ruled the complaint lacked enough evidence to move forward.
Bondi also began to rub shoulders with the Church of Scientology, which has been vigorously accused of “financial fraud, illegal practice of medicine, harassment of journalists critical of the church, and vindictive actions against its former members.” The Church of Scientology was also investigated by the FBI in 2009 on suspicion of whether their treatment of workers, namely physical and mental restrictions, constituted human trafficking. Six prominent Scientologists organized a re-election fundraiser on Bondi’s behalf in 2014. When faced with this reality, Bondi’s campaign spokeswoman said Bondi was aware that Scientologists were staging the event. In 2016, Bondi spoke at an event sponsored by Florida Citizens for Social Reform, a group reportedly created by Scientologists in 2004.
After the conclusion of her second term as Florida’s Attorney General, Bondi joined the AFPI, and is described on the organization’s web site as “leading the fight against the radical Left and its weaponization of government through the courts.” As such, Bondi has contributed to several Op-Eds, news releases, and acted as an amicus curiae on several occasions. The organization, founded in 2021 to support Trump’s policy agenda, filed an unsuccessful lawsuit after Trump was banned across social media for his praising of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and allegations against him of inciting an insurrection. His accounts were reinstated in 2023 with additional monitoring, but those restrictions were lifted by Meta (Facebook and Instagram) in early 2024. Twitter, run by Trump ally Elon Musk, reinstated Trump’s account in November 2022. AFPI also held three annual fundraiser galas at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
The AFPI has a gross history of championing policies that target the LGBTQ+ community. The organization routinely disparages the LGBTQ+ community, citing “radical gender ideology” as “anathema to the family and religion, vital building blocks of Western Civilization and the American constitutional republic,” being sure to name “transgender activists” as threats to “ordered liberty.”
