Background and career
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 Florida attorney general 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 Florida attorney general, 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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
