Pamela Jo Bondi ( BON-dee; born November 17, 1965) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 87th United States attorney general from 2025 to 2026. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the 37th attorney general of Florida from 2011 to 2019.
Born and raised in the Tampa Bay area, Bondi graduated from the University of Florida and Stetson Law School. She served as an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County, Florida, from 1994 to 2009. In 2010, Bondi was elected attorney general of Florida, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. She was re-elected in 2014, becoming the first Republican to win a second term. She served the maximum of two four-year terms. In 2019 fellow Republican Ashley Moody was elected as state attorney general.
In 2020, Bondi was one of President Donald Trump's defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial. By 2024, she led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute. On November 21, 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Bondi for U.S. attorney general after former congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 54–46 vote on February 4, 2025, and sworn in the next day.
In April 2026, after growing dissatisfaction over her lack of success prosecuting Trump's political opponents and handling of the Epstein files, Trump fired Bondi.
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Early life and education
Pamela Jo Bondi was born on November 17, 1965, the daughter of Joe Bondi and Patsy Loretta Bondi (née Hammer). Her hometown is Temple Terrace, Florida. Her father was an educator and entered politics, serving as a city council member and then as elected mayor of Temple Terrace. She is a graduate of C. Leon King High School in Tampa. She is of Italian and German descent. Bondi studied at the University of South Florida, received a BA in criminal justice from the University of Florida in 1987, and a JD from Stetson University College of Law in 1990. She was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority as an undergraduate student. Bondi was admitted to the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991.
Early career
Bondi was a prosecutor and spokeswoman in Hillsborough County, Florida, where she was an assistant state attorney. Bondi prosecuted former Major League Baseball player Dwight Gooden in 2006 for violating the terms of his probation and for substance abuse. In 2007, Bondi also prosecuted the defendants in Martin Anderson's death.
Florida attorney general (2011–2019)
Elections
Bondi ran in the 2010 Florida attorney general election, facing off against former state representative Holly Benson and lieutenant governor Jeff Kottkamp in the Republican primary. During the primary, Bondi was endorsed by former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin.
Polling conducted by Mason-Dixon in August 2010 found her leading both Benson and Kottkamp in the primary. She ultimately won the primary with 37.89% of the vote. In the general election, she faced Democratic nominee Dan Gelber, a former prosecutor who spent 10 years in the state legislature. She defeated Gelber to become the state's first female attorney general.
Bondi was re-elected in November 2014, receiving 55% of the vote. Her Democratic challenger George Sheldon, the former acting commissioner of the Administration for Children and Families, received 42%.
Tenure
Bondi was the lead attorney general in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) in Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services. In the lawsuit the state of Florida and 26 other states argued that the individual mandate provision of the ACA violates the United States Constitution.
In July 2011, Bondi pressured two attorneys to resign who were investigating Lender Processing Services, a financial services company now known as Black Knight, following the robosigning scandal, as part of their work for Florida's Economic Crime Division. In 2013, Bondi persuaded Governor Rick Scott to postpone a scheduled execution because it conflicted with a fundraising event. After questions were raised in the media, Bondi apologized for moving the execution date.
Also in 2013, Bondi expressed her opposition to medical marijuana. In 2018, Bondi joined with 19 other Republican-led states in a lawsuit to overturn the ACA's bans on health insurance companies charging people with pre-existing conditions higher premiums or denying them coverage outright.
Bondi defended Amendment 2, a 2008 amendment to the Florida Constitution banning same-sex marriage, against legal challenges on behalf of the state. Bondi said that these actions did not reflect her opinions on same-sex marriage, but were out of respect for the constitution. Following the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016, Bondi was interviewed by CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, who said that Bondi's expression of support for the LGBT community was at odds with her past record.
In August 2018, while still serving as Florida attorney general, Bondi co-hosted The Five on Fox News three days in a row while also appearing on Sean Hannity's Fox News show. Fox News claimed that the Florida Commission on Ethics had approved Bondi's appearance on the program; however, the spokeswoman for the commission denied that, telling the Tampa Bay Times that no decision was made by the commission and that the commission's general counsel did not make a determination whether or not Bondi's appearance as a host violated the Florida Code of Ethics. The Tampa Bay Times described it as "unprecedented" for a sitting elected official to host a TV show.
Return to private life
Lobbying work
In 2019, after her final term as Florida attorney general, Bondi was hired by Ballard Partners and she began working as a registered foreign agent and lobbyist for Qatar. Her work with Qatar was related to anti-human-trafficking efforts in advance of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. She left the Qatari project in 2019 to work in a temporary position for the White House Counsel for President Trump's first impeachment proceedings.
As a partner at Ballard Partners, she also became a lobbyist for KGL KSCC, a company incorporated in Kuwait. Bondi was lobbying for the Kuwaiti company to help with a case of claimed extortion. During her time at Ballard Partners, Bondi lobbied for for-profit prison operator GEO Group, Amazon, Uber, General Motors, the Florida Sheriffs Association and others.
Trump's first impeachment proceedings
In November 2019, she was hired by the first Trump administration to help the White House during Trump's first impeachment proceedings. Her position was described the following month as being to "attack the process" of the impeachment inquiry. On January 17, 2020, Bondi was named as part of Trump's defense team for the Senate impeachment trial.
During the course of the impeachment trial, Bondi made allegations that former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter were involved in corruption in Ukraine, stemming from the younger Biden's position on the board of Burisma Holdings. It was also revealed that Lev Parnas, a businessman with close ties to Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine, had several meetings with Bondi in 2018 while she was the Florida attorney general, and after she left office in 2019.
2020 presidential election
Bondi spoke in support of Trump at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Bondi became a vocal supporter of Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat. While ballots were being counted in the 2020 United States presidential election, Bondi supported Trump's false claim that there was large-scale voter fraud in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In an appearance on Fox News on November 5, 2020, host Steve Doocy challenged Bondi to provide evidence for her claims of fraud. She said "We know that ballots have been dumped." Bondi later claimed that Trump had won Pennsylvania, despite votes there still being counted, with his opponent Joe Biden ultimately winning the state.
Board of trustees and advocacy work
During the following lame-duck session, Trump appointed Bondi to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Palm Beach Post described the appointment as a reward for her loyalty to Trump. By 2024, Bondi led the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit that planned policies for a potential second Trump presidency. She worked to file voting lawsuits in battleground states relating to the 2024 presidential election.
United States attorney general (2025–2026)
Nomination and confirmation
On November 21, 2024, president-elect Trump announced Bondi would be nominated for United States attorney general, after the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz for that position. There were two hearings at the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, one on January 15, 2025, and the second one on January 16. Bondi was questioned by Democratic Senators over her past work as a lobbyist, the 2020 presidential election results, her relationship with Trump, and her thoughts about TikTok.
On January 29, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved her nomination in a party-line 12–10 vote. She was confirmed in a 54–46 Senate vote on February 4. The only Democratic senator who voted "aye" was Senator John Fetterman. Bondi disclosed to the Senate Judiciary committee and the designated ethics official at the U.S. Department of Justice the compensation for her consulting services to Renatus Advisors LLC of Puerto Rico in shares and stock warrants for the merger of Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) and Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), which were in turn converted to shares and warrants of DJT on the day of the merger. The compensation for the consulting services totaled $2,969,563.
Tenure
On February 5, 2025, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas swore Bondi into office as the 87th attorney general. On Bondi's first day in office, she shut down the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, shut down the DOJ's Task Force KleptoCapture, and cut back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Bondi largely took an implementation role as attorney general, with key decisions being made by Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and other White House officials.
In March 2025, Bondi announced the establishment of the Joint Task Force October 7 (JTF 10–7) to seek justice for victims of the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas, which killed approximately 1,200 people, including 47 U.S. citizens, and saw about 250 others abducted, including eight Americans. The task force was created to focus on prosecuting the perpetrators of the attack, pursuing charges against Hamas leadership, and targeting individuals and entities providing support or financing to Hamas, related Iranian proxies, and affiliates. Following the United States government group chat leak in March 2025, Bondi indicated that the leak would not be investigated, saying that the information shared was not classified.
On April 1, 2025, Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the Luigi Mangione case.
On May 12, 2025, Bondi convened a task force on anti-Christian bias.
On May 15, 2025, it was reported that Bondi sold at least $1 million worth of shares in Trump Media on "Liberation Day".
On June 5, 2025, a coalition of attorneys brought ethics complaints against Bondi. However, the Florida Bar said it would not investigate Bondi while she was in office. On May 27, 2026, after Bondi had left office, the coalition of more than 120 attorneys, led by former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, filed a new and expanded complaint.
On September 9, 2025, in response to the killing of Iryna Zarutska, Bondi said she would seek the death penalty for the perpetrator and that he would "never again see the light of day as a free man".
Removal
On April 1, 2026, The New York Times reported that Trump was considering firing Bondi and replacing her with Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin. On April 2, Trump announced he had fired Bondi, which was reportedly due to dissatisfaction with her failed prosecutions into Trump's political opponents and handling of the Epstein files.
Personal life
Bondi's first voter registration was with the Democratic Party in 1984; she changed her registration to Republican in 2000. In a 2010 interview, Bondi said she had "always been conservative".
Bondi married Garret Barnes in 1990; the couple divorced after 22 months of marriage. In 1996, Bondi married Scott Fitzgerald; they divorced in 2002. She was engaged to Greg Henderson in 2012. Since 2017, she has been in a relationship with John Wakefield. Her younger brother is a lawyer.
Bondi is a Christian, attending sermons hosted by Radiant Church beginning in 2014. On her request, Radiant's pastor, Aaron Burke, led a prayer during the ceremony of then-Florida Governor Rick Scott's second term in office.
In October 2025, a man with an existing criminal record was arrested and charged with offering a $45,000 bounty to kill Bondi. The suspect posted on TikTok that he wanted Bondi "dead or alive" but "preferably dead".
In May 2026, CNN reported that Bondi was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and stated that she was recovering from it after undergoing treatment, including a surgery a few weeks prior.