‘Conflict of interest’ concerns raised after Trump’s new AG pick’s past clientele revealed

Donald Trump’s second pick for attorney general has a long history of representing foreign and corporate clients.
Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, was nominated after the president-elect’s first pick Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew amid intense scrutiny for allegations of having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Bondi, 59, has represented the D.C. lobbying firm Ballard Partners, which has ties to the Qatari government, General Motors and the Florida Sheriffs Association, among others, according to an investigation by The Intercept.
Jeff Hauser, director of Revolving Door Project, a government lobbying watchdog group, told The Intercept that her legal work represents “the maturation of the political strategy of corporate America and our oligarch class.”
Kenny Stancil, a senior researcher at the watchdog group, told The Lever that her nomination will “further cement plutocracy” in Washington while Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, called Bondi back in 2016 a “servant of corporate interests.”
In 2019, Bondi was involved in a lobbying effort for GEO Group, which is behind private prisons that stand to make an eyewatering sum if President-elect Trump follows through with his mass deportation plan, according to a disclosure form.
CEO Group officials said during a recent earnings call that it will make an extra $400 million in revenue per year and that its stock has skyrocketed more than 100 percent since the day before the election.
According to the disclosure form, its lobbyists are involved in “promoting the use of public-private partnerships in correctional services, including evidence based rehabilitation programs aimed at reducing recidivism.
“GEO does not advocate for or against criminal justice policy related to the criminalizing certain behaviors or length of criminal sentences, nor does GEO take a position on immigration enforcement policies or detention policies.”
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Bondi has also done legal work for Silicon Valley giants, Amazon and Uber.
The Biden administration filed several antitrust lawsuits against big corporations, including Apple, Google and Live Nation-Ticketmaster, for allegedly operating illegal monopolies in their markets.
The Federal Trade Commission also filed a separate suit against Bondi’s client Amazon.
Trump asked Bondi to represent him during his first impeachment trial in 2019, and Trump officials denied that her clientele posed a conflict of interest.
“She’s not here to lobby. She’s here to make sense about how in the world we’re going to impeach or remove a democratically elected president,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said at the time.
Stancil also raised concerns to The Lever about Bondi’s ties to Elon Musk.
“Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Pam Bondi for Attorney General is a win for Elon Musk and corporate criminals everywhere,” Stancil said in a statement to The Lever. “A Bondi-led Justice Department would almost certainly shield Musk and Tesla from federal scrutiny.”
The independent outlet reported that Bondi’s brother Bradley represented Musk and Tesla against federal charges of securities fraud.
This is further complicated by the fact that Trump is also reportedly considering tapping Bondi’s brother to lead the federal agency that brought the fraud charges against Musk, according to the outlet.