Pam Bondi Biography

Pam Bondi was born Pamela Jo Bondi, on November 17, 1965, in Temple Terrace, near Tampa, Florida, U.S.A., to Italian–American parents Joseph and Pasty Bondi.

Pam’s father, Joseph Bondi, worked as a city council member and had also been elected as the mayor of Temple Terrace. She grew up with her two siblings, Beth Bondi McIntyre and Brad Bondi.

Pam attended the C. Leon King High School in Tampa. After completing school in 1983, she joined the University of Florida. She eventually graduated with a BA degree in criminal justice in 1987. At the university, Pam was part of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Pam then obtained a Juris Doctorate degree from the Stetson University College of Law (or the Stetson Law School) in 1990. Eventually, she joined the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991.

Pam Bondi initially worked as a prosecutor and spokeswoman in Hillsborough County, Florida (Thirteenth Judicial District), serving as an assistant state attorney. She eventually resigned to take over the office of the attorney general of Florida.

During her time as a prosecutor, she worked as a felony bureau chief and a member of the committees on vehicular homicide, internal homicide, and DUI manslaughter. In 2006, she prosecuted former Major League Baseball (MLB) player Dwight Gooden for violating his probation terms and for substance abuse. The following year, she prosecuted the defendants of the Martin Anderson death case.

Pam also served as the vice chair of the Florida Bar Grievance Committee. In 2001, the Tampa Bay Review awarded her the Lawyers of Distinction Award.

She was elected as the 37th attorney general of Florida on November 2, 2010, after she defeated Democrat Dan Gelber. With this, she became the first woman attorney general of Florida. She served in the position from January 2011 to January 2019, having been re-elected in 2014.

In fact, she went uncontested in the Republican primary and won over Democrat George Sheldon and Libertarian Bill Wohlsifer in the general election held on November 4, 2014.

As an attorney general, Pam Bondi participated in the lawsuit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA, or "Obamacare"). Florida was the main plaintiff in the lawsuit that involved 26 other states. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually upheld the law in 2012.

In February 2017, Pam Bondi became a member of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, which consisted of 37 members and was established to review and suggest changes to the Florida Constitution.

In 2018, Pam and 19 other Republican-ruled states filed a lawsuit against the ACA's bans on health-insurance agencies demanding higher premiums from people with pre-existing health conditions or refusing them insurance coverage.

In August 2020, Pam Bondi delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention held at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington.

Pam Bondi is known for her opposition to LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage. However, she seemed to have changed her opinion on the gay community after the 2016 Orlando gay nightclub shooting. She later claimed her opinions had been manipulated by news channels.

Since 2010, Pam’s association with Scientology and various fundraisers organized by leading Scientologists to fund her political campaigns have created a lot of controversy.

Pam Bondi has also often been criticized for the monetary contributions she received from Donald Trump. Apparently, in 2013, Pam had decided to join a lawsuit against Trump University for alleged tax fraud. However, soon, Trump’s foundation donated $25,000 to And Justice for All, a political action committee that Pam was associated with. Following this, she did not join the lawsuit against Trump. The Trump Foundation later said that the donation was an erroneous one.

In March 2016, Pam Bondi campaigned for Trump in the 2016 Florida Republican presidential primary. Trump was later fined for his donation to Pam’s political action committee, and in November 2019, a New York state court ordered him to discontinue the operations of the foundation and to pay $2 million in damages for misusing it.

In 2019, after Pam’s term as an attorney general ended, she started working for Ballard Partners, a firm associated with Trump. In November that year, the Trump administration hired Pam to work for the White House during Trump's impeachment inquiry.

In January 2020, Pam became a member of Trump's defense team for the Senate impeachment trial.

During the impeachment trial, Pam Bondi accused Joe Biden, of engaging in corrupt business dealings in Ukraine with his son Hunter. Although these allegations have never been substantiated, her promotion of them strengthened her relationship with Donald Trump and secured her a prominent speaking role at the Republican National Convention later that year.

In August 2018, when she was still an attorney general, Pam Bondi co-hosted a few episodes of the Fox News show The Five. She also appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News. It was later revealed that the channel authorities had not sought any permission for featuring Pam on the show, while the Florida Commission on Ethics was supposed to approve of any such appearance prior to the show’s broadcast.

Pam has appeared as a guest on Joe Scarborough’s show Scarborough Country. She has also appeared on various MSNBC shows.

She is a member of Tampa Bay United Way and serves on the board of directors of the University of Florida Gator Club.

Pam Bondi got married to her first husband, Garret Barnes, in 1990. However, they divorced in 1992, just 22 months after their marriage.

In 1997, Pam married her second husband, Scott Fitzgerald. The couple divorced in 2002.

In 2012, tabloids reported that Pam had married again, this time to her long-time boyfriend, ophthalmologist Greg Henderson. The duo had apparently been clicked at what appeared to be a wedding party, at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman, a luxury Caribbean resort. The event was attended by about 60-70 guests.

At the event, Pam was seen dressed in a white gown with a flower in her hair. However, when asked, Pam denied she had gotten married again. She stated that she and her boyfriend had been there on a vacation. Some sources suggest that they were supposed to get married but a last-minute prenuptial disagreement had led to either her or her fiancé backing out of the wedding. By 2015, the couple parted ways.