Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was hired temporarily to coordinate and be the public face of the response to the House’s impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Bondi is a staunch supporter of the president and campaigned vigorously for him in her home state of Florida during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Bondi's communications role hit a rocky patch Wednesday when she referred to Gordon Sondland, who is testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Sondland is the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union.
"He was ambassador to the Ukraine, he is ambassador to the Ukraine and the President knows him. The President does not know him very well. He's a short-term ambassador. Of course he knows him," Bondi said on CBS' "This Morning" show.
Bondi, who turned 54 on Nov. 17, won election in 2010 as Florida's first female attorney general and the 37th in state history. Because of a state law limiting the attorney general to two terms, Bondi was unable to run again in 2018.
Pamela Jo Bondi was born Nov. 17, 1965, in Tampa and graduated from Leon C. King High School. She attended the University of Florida, where she earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1987. She earned her Juris Doctor at Stetson Law School in 1990 and was admitted to the Florida Bar on June 24, 1991.
She was a prosecutor and assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County before running for Florida's attorney general position.
Her father, Joseph C. Bondi Jr., was a city councilman in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace and served as mayor from 1974 to 1978. Bondi’s mother, Patsy Loretta Hammer, was an elementary school teacher in the Tampa area who taught kindergarten, first and fourth grade. She has a sister, Beth Bondi McIntyre, and a brother, Brad Bondi.
Her paternal grandfather, Joseph C. Bondi Sr., also was a teacher. Her great-grandfather, Charles (Calogero) Bondi, emigrated to the United States from Sicily.
Bondi’s maternal grandmother, Grace May Gibson, moved to Florida as a child and lived in rural DeSoto County before moving to Tampa. Her maternal grandfather, Kenneth Hammer, was born in Washington state and was a member of the carpenters union in Tampa, where he lived with his wife for 30 years.
Bondi married Garrett Barnes in August 1990 (they were divorced in November 1992), and Scott Fitzgerald in January 1997. They were divorced in 2002.
Bondi fought against former President Barack Obama's programs, signing onto a lawsuit with other states challenging the Deferred Action Against Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), the Miami Herald reported in 2014. She also joined a lawsuit attempting to overturn the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, according to Ballotpedia.
In 2017, a bribery claim against Bondi involving a $25,000 donation from Trump through his foundation in 2013 was dropped because prosecutors said it lacked enough evidence to move forward, the Tampa Bay Times reported.