SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
u.s. department of justice
Bondi's First Acts as AG Curb Enforcement of Foreign Lobbying and Corporate Misconduct Laws
"These changes are an invitation to foreign actors to interfere in American affairs," warned one former DOJ prosecutor. "Even worse, it's an invitation to Americans to help them do it."
Feb 06, 2025
On her first day in office Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi—a former lobbyist for foreign governments and wealthy special interests that have come under scrutiny by the Department of Justice she now leads—dissolved teams tasked with investigating foreign lobbying and threats posed by corporate misconduct.
Bondi signed 14 directives on Wednesday, including measures to revive enforcement of the federal death penalty, investigate Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who prosecuted President Donald Trump, defund sanctuary cities, and end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs.
She also issued a memo disbanding the Foreign Influence Task Force and limiting criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) "to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors."
Aaron Zelinsky, a former DOJ national security prosecutor, toldBloomberg Law that "taken together, these changes are an invitation to foreign actors to interfere in American affairs."
"Even worse, it's an invitation to Americans to help them do it," he added.
🚨NEWS: AG Pam Bondi just issued an order limiting enforcement of anti-corruption laws regulating foreign government lobbyists trying to influence Trump officials. Bondi was a foreign agent for Qatar & her old firm lobbies for foreign governments.
[image or embed]
— David Sirota (@davidsirota.com) February 6, 2025 at 9:54 AM
As Sludge's Donald Shaw noted Thursday:
Bondi is a former foreign agent herself. In 2019, the lobbying firm Ballard Partners registered through FARA to work for the government of Qatar to provide "advocacy services relative to U.S.-Qatar bilateral relations, [including] guidance and assistance in matters related to combating human trafficking." Bondi was designated one of the key personnel on the Qatar contract, for which Ballard Partners was paid $115,000 per month.
Ballard Partners, where Bondi was employed until her confirmation, is currently registered to work as a foreign agent lobbyist for Japan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the FARA database. In her ethics agreement with the Office of Government Ethics, Bondi pledged that she would not "participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which I know Ballard Partners is a party."
By restricting FARA enforcement to traditional espionage, Bondi is narrowing the application of a law that has been used for prominent political corruption investigations and prosecutions. Last year, the Department of Justice charged Democratic House Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) with taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent of Azerbaijan, and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez [N.J.] was convicted and sentenced to 11 years for bribery and conspiring to act as a foreign agent for Egypt."
Bondi issued another memo Wednesday reorienting the DOJ Criminal Division's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit to "prioritize investigations related to foreign bribery that facilitates the criminal operations of cartels and [transnational criminal organizations], and shift focus away from investigations and cases that do not involve such a connection."
Another eyebrow-raising memo from Bondi demanded "zealous advocacy" of Trump's policy agenda by DOJ attorneys, whom she falsely called "his lawyers."
"It is the job of an attorney privileged to serve in the Department of Justice to zealously defend the interests of the United States," she wrote. "Those interests, and the overall policy of the United States, are set by the nation's chief executive, who is vested by the Constitution with all executive power."
This is an absolutely remarkable memo — and a betrayal of both the Constitution and the American political tradition. In the US, by *explicit contrast* with interwar fascist governments, the state is not supposed to be an extension of the personality of the chief executive.
[image or embed]
— Noah Rosenblum ( @narosenblum.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Reacting to that memo, MSNBC legal analyst and former Florida state's attorney Katie Phang wrote on the social media site Bluesky that "lawyers still have ethical obligations that stand separate and apart from what a client wants them to do."
Law Dork publisher Chris Geidner summed up the memo as a warning to "accept and defend Donald Trump's policies, or you might be fired."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Durbin Demands Answers on Bondi's Foreign, Corporate Lobbying Clients
"I remain concerned about her ability to serve as an attorney general who will put her oath to the Constitution ahead of her fealty to Donald Trump," said the senator.
Jan 10, 2025
Ahead of a planned confirmation hearing for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat on Friday joined government watchdogs in raising alarm over Bondi's past lobbying work.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the panel's ranking member, asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to turn over information regarding Bondi's past registration as a foreign agent working on behalf of countries including Qatar, Kosovo, and Zimbabwe.
Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, did not list foreign clients as potential conflicts of interest on her Senate Judiciary Questionnaire, said Durbin, who met with her earlier this week.
Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the DOJ is "privy to a number of disclosures, including details on any written or oral contracts as well as money spent and received while lobbying," reportedThe Hill.
"To understand the extent to which her work as a FARA-registered lobbyist may create potential conflicts of interest should she be confirmed as attorney general, the committee requires additional information from the Department of Justice that is not otherwise available," Durbin wrote to the DOJ.
The senator also asked the National Archives and Records Administration to disclose to the committee records on more than 25 companies Bondi lobbied for, including Major League Baseball (MLB), Amazon, and General Motors (GM).
The DOJ in 2023 asked a federal court not to extend MLB's exemption from antitrust laws, and the department has reached settlements with Amazon and GM, along with other companies Bondi lobbied for.
"The role of the attorney general is to oversee an independent Justice Department that upholds the rule of law and is free of undue political influence," said Durbin on Wednesday. "Given Ms. Bondi’s responses to my questions, I remain concerned about her ability to serve as an attorney general who will put her oath to the Constitution ahead of her fealty to Donald Trump."
Durbin raised the concerns following the release of reports by Public Citizen and Accountable.US, on Bondi's history of lobbying work.
Accountable.US found that at least five of Bondi's major corporate lobbying clients "faced DOJ fines, investigations, or related scrutiny that could pose serious conflicts if she is confirmed as AG."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Ethics Report Finds Matt Gaetz, Trump's First AG Pick, Paid for Sex With a Minor
"Keep in mind that Donald Trump believed that Gaetz was the most qualified person in America to be the chief law enforcement official in the United States," said one attorney.
Dec 23, 2024
Government ethics advocates on Monday voiced serious concerns over President-elect Donald Trump's judgment and transition process following the release of a congressional probe containing "substantial evidence" that, while in office, former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida—Trump's erstwhile pick for U.S attorney general—committed statutory rape against a minor, bought and used illegal drugs, and obstructed the investigation against him.
The bipartisan House Ethics Committee "determined there is substantial evidence that Rep. Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress" during his time in office, according to the panel's 37-page report.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-Md.), the incoming ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, toldUSA Today on Monday that "it's a terribly damning report for any member of Congress and a humiliating one for someone who wanted to be considered as an attorney general of the United States."
The report says Gaetz made more than $90,000 in payments for what the committee believed were likely "sexual activity and/or illicit drug use," including $400 for sex with a 17-year-old girl who "had just completed her junior year of high school" at a July 15, 2017 party at the home of Christopher Dorworth, a former Republican state lawmaker in Florida who was once
named "legislator of the year" by the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. According to court filings viewed by Rolling Stone, Dorworth repeatedly sought the destruction of records related to the party.
The publication further states that the girl did not disclose her age to Gaetz—who was 35 at the time—nor did he ask. The girl also "acknowledged that she was under the influence of ecstasy during her sexual encounters" with Gaetz at the party and said she saw him "use cocaine" at the gathering. The panel found that Gaetz repeatedly used these and other illicit drugs.
The committee also found that Gaetz:
- Accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts;
- Arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent;
- Knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the committee's investigation of his conduct; and
- Acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House.
While the report states that all of the sexual encounters involving Gaetz were consensual, "at least one woman felt that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have 'impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.'"
One woman told the committee, "When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated."
Statutory rape and 20 instances of paying for sex, which Gaetz has vehemently denied. What was Gaetz thinking putting himself up for AJ? And for Trump “vetting“ team, malpractice if they didn’t know; fraud on Senate, country if they did know and tried to slide him through with no investigation
— Harry Litman ( @harrylitman.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 7:13 AM
The probe did not find that Gaetz broke federal sex trafficking laws, because although he "did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the committee did not find evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion."
Gaetz—who on Monday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the report's release on the grounds that he is now a private citizen—has repeatedly denied having sex with a minor.
"These claims would be destroyed in court—which is why they were never made in any court against me," he toldThe Hill on Monday ahead of the report's release—but after some of the findings were reported on late Sunday.
In a move widely seen as an attempt to prevent the public from ever seeing the report, Gaetz resigned from Congress on November 13, shortly after Trump announced him as the nominee for attorney general.
The Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee initially said on November 20 that it would not release the report on Gaetz, which widespread criticism. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) vehemently objected to releasing the report, arguing that doing so would set a "terrible precedent."
The following day, Gaetz said he would not accept Trump's nomination to head the U.S. Department of Justice. Trump subsequently tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the top DOJ post.
The report on Gaetz has renewed focus on Trump's fitness for office.
As you read the House Ethics report about Gaetz, always keep in mind that Donald Trump believed that Gaetz was the most qualified person in America to be the chief law enforcement official in the United States.
— Ron Filipkowski ( @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 7:16 AM
"Matt Gaetz is the man Donald Trump would have had as attorney general of the United States of America," Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Trump and his transition team are disregarding obvious red flags in announcing their planned Cabinet and top official nominees, seemingly relying on rabid loyalty to the incoming president as the primary selection criterion."
"The Gaetz report underscores the importance of the Senate independently and aggressively exercising its advise and consent function," Weissman added.
Lawyers for Good Government vice-chair Adam Cohen wrote on social media, "I don't care if Gaetz was some strategic sacrificial lamb pick."
"Trump now expects his other nominees to sail through," he added. "We need to challenge them all."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular