Ahead of Pam Bondi’s nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller released the following statement along with five questions Bondi must answer:
“Just like so much of Trump’s Corrupt Cabinet, corporate lobbyist Pam Bondi is surrounded by conflicts of interest that she must answer for in her nomination hearing. As the nation’s top law enforcement official, the attorney general must be held to the highest ethical and legal standards – free from undue influence by former clients, investments, or relationships. The American people deserve public officials who are putting our nation’s best interests first, not their own self-interest.”
Five Questions for Attorney General Nominee Pam Bondi:
1) Will Bondi recuse herself from any and all matters relating to her previous lobbying clients, including Qatar, Amazon, Fidelity, GM, GEO Group? Will she recuse herself from any case involving Ballard Partners’ clients?
- GEO Group, which owns and operates private prisons, is a major contractor with the Department of Justice, and stands to benefit from increased deportations.
- Amazon is a major government contractor, and is possibly subject to antitrust and labor suits.
2) Has Bondi fully disclosed all of her financial holdings and those of her partner, John Wakefield? How will Bondi address any potential conflicts of interest related to her partner’s investments in the private equity, real estate, and banking sectors? Will she recuse herself from any decisions involving those investments, and has she provided documentation to be fully transparent about these ties?
- John Wakefield, Bondi’s longtime partner, founded Varner Wakefield Equity Partners, a real estate and telecom investing firm. Wakefield also sits on the Tampa Advisory Board of the Bank of Central Florida.
3) What steps has Bondi taken to address potential conflicts of interest arising from her brother, Brad Bondi’s, legal lobbying clients, or those of his firm, Paul Hastings LLP? Will she recuse herself from any case involving Brad Bondi or Paul Hastings LLP’s clients?
- Brad Bondi previously represented Tesla in a settlement with SEC over allegations that CEO Elon Musk’s comments about taking the company private misled investors. As of May 2024, the Department of Justice is investigating whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its electric vehicles’ self-driving capabilities.
- Brad Bondi’s firm, Paul Hastings LLP, registered in 2024 to lobby at the federal level on behalf of 14 clients including Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group Technologies Ltd., crypto exchange BlockQuake Holdings LLC and Goodbit PBC, an online education service focused on crypto and blockchain, among others.
4) Does Bondi still own 106,250 shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, currently valued at nearly $4 million?
5) What steps will Bondi take to ensure that the Justice Department is not weaponized to go after political opponents or to protect political allies?
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