Will Bondi Run A 'Business-Friendly' Department Of Justice?

Miami-based Carnival Corporation, the world’s biggest cruise line, had a problem in Cuba that it wanted then-President Trump to fix. Carnival hired Pam Bondi as a lobbyist. The firm feared it could be sued for damages of up to $600 million for parking its cruise ships at Havana docks that had been seized decades earlier by Cuban communists. With Bondi’s help, Carnival chairman Micky Arison got a meeting with Trump He did not side with the company, but Bondi demonstrated that she could help grease relations with the Trump administration for her clients, reports the New York Times. Critics question if Bondi will bring that same transactional philosophy to the Justice Department. She would not be the first attorney general who had served as a lobbyist. Eric Holder, attorney general during the Obama administration, worked as a registered lobbyist, and William Barr, one of Trump’s attorneys general, had been a corporate leader of a government advocacy group.

As Florida’s attorney general, Bondi became known for what one lobbying firm called her “business-friendly” attitude. In her time as a lobbyist, which began in 2019, Bondi represented a long roster of corporate clients, including Uber and Amazon. Many of these companies have business with the federal government and could be subject to scrutiny by a Justice Department run by her, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. “The attorney general must first serve the American people and justice,” said James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general and former head of a Columbia University program focusing on the practice of law by state attorneys general. Bondi “can never serve the personal interests of the president or others seeking favors from him.” The Trump transition said, “All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their ... agencies ... As attorney general, Pam Bondi will be solely focused on returning the Department of Justice to its true mission of fighting crime, prosecuting criminals and keeping Americans safe.”