Bondi's First Acts as AG Curb Enforcement of Foreign Lobbying and Corporate Misconduct Laws

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, told Bloomberg 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.

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."

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."