Hearing Watch: Will AG Pam Bondi Own Up To Her Conflicts of Interest?

This morning, corporate lobbyist turned U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi faces Senate Judiciary Committee questioning for the first time since her confirmation. The hearing comes as “[m]ore than 275 former Justice Department employees are demanding Congress increase oversight of the department following a mass exodus of career officials who question the integrity of the department's work.” Beyond these concerns from former colleagues over Bondi’s unwillingness to put the constitution above her loyalty to President Donald Trump, the Attorney General has also validated concerns raised in January over her inability to put the public interest before her former lobbying clients and wealthy friends.

During Bondi’s confirmation process, government watchdog Accountable.US revealed that at least five of Bondi’s direct lobbying clients have faced DOJ fines, investigations, or related scrutiny that could pose serious conflicts should they have business before Bondi’s DOJ. Bondi’s clients included Amazon, General Motors, The GEO Group, Uber, and Major League Baseball.

Now, in her first months as Attorney General, Bondi’s lobbying work continues to pose a wide variety of conflict of interest concerns, an Accountable.US review found—with Ballard Partners seeing a surge in DOJ lobbying work since her confirmation; with Bondi’s DOJ scuttling a major antitrust challenge in favor of a new Ballard Partners client; and with Bondi’s DOJ facing a lawsuit over a memo she signed allowing Trump to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar, who she represented while at Ballard Partners.

“In her eight months as Attorney General, Pam Bondi has confirmed all warnings about her treating the office as an enforcer for Donald Trump’s personal whims while also acting as a walking conflict of interest for her former lobbying firm and clients,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “It says it all that the former Qatar lobbyist Bondi penned a DOJ memo – i.e. corruption ‘get out of jail free card’ – allowing Donald Trump to use a gifted luxury super jet from the nation he’s doing billions of dollars in crypto business with during and after his presidency. During her first Senate hearing, will Bondi answer for all these sweetheart deals she’s supporting for the President and former lobbying clients while millions of working Americans are asked to choose between a continued government shutdown or losing their health care?”

HERE’S HOW BONDI’S CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE ALREADY COMPROMISING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC INTEREST:

• Since Pamela Bondi became Attorney General, Ballard Partners has become “the highest-paid lobbying shop” in Washington D.C. On top of this, Ballard has represented 10 different clients directly before Bondi’s DOJ in the first months of the second Trump administration—more DOJ clients than it had in the first Trump and Biden administrations combined.
  
• In March 2025, shortly after Bondi’s confirmation, Ballard Partners registered as a lobbying firm for American Express Global Business Travel, which paid the firm $200,000 to exclusively lobby Bondi’s DOJ in the first half of 2025 alone. Notably, in July 2025, Bondi’s DOJ dismissed the Biden Administration’s challenge against a $540 million merger that would have allowed American Express GBT to “eliminate its second-largest rival” CWT Holdings.
  
• While she was with Ballard Partners, Bondi was a foreign lobbyist for the nation of Qatar. Once she became Attorney General, Bondi “personally signed” a DOJ legal memo approving the legality of Qatar’s royal family gifting a $400 million “palace in the sky” jet to the Trump administration, for Trump to use as Air Force One. In July 2025, Bondi’s DOJ was sued by the Freedom of the Press Foundation for refusing to release the memorandum Bondi reportedly signed approving the gift.
  
  
  • Meanwhile, the Trump Organization announced its first foreign deal in Trump’s second term, a new luxury golf resort in Qatar developed in partnership with a Qatari government-owned company.