Pam Bondi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pam Bondi
37th Florida Attorney General
In office January 4, 2011 – January 8, 2019
Governor	Rick Scott
Preceded by	Bill McCollum
Succeeded by	Ashley Moody
Personal details
Born	Pamela Jo Bondi (1965-11-17) November 17, 1965 (age 58) Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Political party	Republican (2000-present) Democratic (before 2000)
Spouses	Garret Barnes ​ ​ (m. 1990; div. 1992)​ Scott Fitzgerald ​ ​ (m. 1996; div. 2002)​
Education	University of Florida (BA) Stetson University (JD)

Pamela Jo Bondi (born November 17, 1965) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, the first woman elected to the office.

In 2020, Bondi was one of longtime ally President Donald Trump's defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial.

Early life and education

Bondi's hometown is Temple Terrace, Florida. Her father, Joseph Bondi, was a city council member and then Mayor of Temple Terrace. She is a graduate of C. Leon King High School in Tampa. Bondi graduated from the University of Florida in 1987 with a degree in Criminal Justice and was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She earned a JD from Stetson Law School in 1990 and was admitted to the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991.

Early career

Bondi acted as a prosecutor and spokeswoman in Hillsborough County, Florida, where she was an Assistant State Attorney. Bondi resigned this position to seek the office of Attorney General of Florida. She has made guest appearances on Scarborough Country with Joe Scarborough and various other cable news programming on MSNBC and worked for Fox News as a guest host.

..... In 2007, Bondi also prosecuted the defendants in Martin Anderson's death.

Attorney General of Florida

2010 election

Bondi ran for Florida Attorney General in the 2010 election, facing off against former state representative Holly Benson and lieutenant governor Jeff Kottkamp in the Republican primary. In a competitive field, Bondi notably received the support of former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. The Palm Beach Post credited her surge in support in the primary to her media-savviness, including regular appearances on Fox News and her public association with Sean Hannity.

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 ultimately comfortably defeated Gelber to become the state's first female Attorney General.

Tenure

Bondi was the lead attorney general in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (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 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 opposed same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights issues on behalf of the state. 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. Cooper said that Bondi was "either mistaken or not telling the truth," while Bondi accused Cooper of fomenting "anger and hate."

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, 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.

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%.

Association with Donald Trump

In 2016, Bondi gave a speech at the Republican National Convention, during which she led "Lock her up" chants directed at the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In 2019, after her final term as Florida attorney general, Bondi was hired by Ballard Partners, a firm with close ties to Trump, and she began working as a registered lobbyist for Qatar. In November 2019, she was hired by the Trump administration to help the White House during Trump's first impeachment proceedings, being given special Government employee status, allowing Bondi to continue working for the Arab lobby. 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 debunked allegations that former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden were involved in corruption in Ukraine, stemming from Hunter Biden's position on 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. In 2019, Parnas was arrested and accused of illegally funneling foreign money from Ukrainians and Russians to Republican politicians, particularly in Florida, where he lived.

Bondi spoke in support of Trump at the 2020 Republican National Convention. While ballots were being counted in the 2020 United States presidential election, Bondi supported Trump's baseless claims 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, to which she refused. Bondi later claimed that Trump had won Pennsylvania, despite votes there still being counted, with his opponent Joe Biden ultimately winning the state.

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.

Personal life

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. She is a member of the Junior League.

Electoral history

See also

In Spanish: Pam Bondi para niños

• Impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump
• List of female state attorneys general in the United States