November 6, 2019

Pam Bondi Dives Into the Swamp

Talk about a revolving door.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, with Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas (left), who was indicted last month for violating campaign finance laws, as well as Giuliani and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in November 2018 in South Daytona, Florida.Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press

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Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and more recently a lobbyist at a firm with extensive ties to President Donald Trump, will join the White House communications staff temporarily to help with messaging during the ongoing impeachment inquiry, according to reports Wednesday.

Talk about a revolving door.

In September 2013, the Donald J. Trump Foundation gave $25,000 to Bondi’s campaign for reelection as attorney general. A month later, Bondi announced that Florida would not join other states suing Trump for fraud over Trump University’s marketing of its seminars on real estate and management, even though many of Trump’s alleged victims lived in Florida. A Florida state prosecutor later said there was no evidence that the donation was illegal, but the incident has left Bondi dogged by allegations that she took a bribe from Trump.

But when Bondi left office, she didn’t exactly steer clear of ethical concerns. She joined Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm that touts its ties to Trump. Brian Ballard, the firm’s founder and a former lobbyist for Trump in Florida, launched the firm in 2017, capitalizing on Trump’s election. Starting last January, Bondi helped Ballard lobby the White House for clients including General Motors, Major League Baseball, and the Government of Qatar.

Bondi will work directly for Trump. That is a resume straight out of what Trump and his allies used to call the swamp.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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