Who is AG nominee Pam Bondi? 5 Florida moments that define it

The 59-year-old Tampa Bay native began her career with the Hillsborough County District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor.

Pam BondiThe former Florida attorney general, now President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. attorney general, has been a perennial favorite among the state’s Republican ruling class.

Bondi, the state’s first female attorney general from 2011-2019, led the legal fight against same-sex marriage. She waged a war on drugs and pill mills. She brought adorable dogs to Florida cabinet meetings.

But she was also caught up in the fuss over Trump’s odd political contributions and was once involved in “dog custody battle” over a St. Bernard who was separated from his family during Hurricane Katrina.

The 59-year-old Tampa Bay native began her career with the Hillsborough County District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor and then served as a longtime prosecutor’s representative. She’s now known as a longtime Trump supporter and for her strong support of conservative causes—plus, she’s no stranger to controversy.

Here are five memorable moments from her time in Florida as a state official:

Florida’s ‘pill mill’ legislation saved lives

In 2011, Bondi vowed to crack down on “pill mills,” clinics that overprescribe drugs. opioids like OxyContin, and has worsened an already deadly overdose crisis. A year earlier, of the top 100 doctors buying the most oxycodone in the United States, 90 were in Florida. According to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Bondi made the fight against prescription drug abuse “highest priority” and together with Governor Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature, legislation was passed (HB 7095) and established the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which did result in a decline in prescriptions and utilization.

The program required clinics prescribing opioids to be state registered and have a physician owner. The law establishes established regulations and prohibitions for doctors of these clinics.

A “pill mill crackdown” did reduce overdoses associated with prescription opioids and heroin and, according to one researcher, prevented more people from becoming addicted. One study As a result of this law, it is estimated that 1,029 lives were saved from prescription opioid overdose over a 34-month period.

Bondi spoke out against same-sex marriage in Florida

In 2014, a group of gay marriage advocates sued the state of Florida, alleging that the state discriminated against LGBTQ residents by not recognizing marriage licenses issued in other states.

Bondi fought the lawsuit, arguing that a 2008 referendum in which 62% of voters agreed that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman was the reason she continues to oppose same-sex marriage.

“Anything less than the best protection of our constituents’ policy preferences would disenfranchise the electorate, undermine the judicial process, and deprive me of the professional responsibility that guides me every day as Attorney General.” she said in a statement in 2014.

Near the end of the year, Florida filed an emergency petition to keep the state’s marriage ban in place after Tallahassee-based U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled it was unconstitutional, but six months later a U.S. Supreme Court decision ended the state’s fight and declared same-sex marriage. constitutional in all 50 states.

After the ruling, Bondi said the Supreme Court had finally granted “the clarity our state and country have been seeking”“The legal effort was not about personal beliefs or opinions, but rather about the rule of law,” she said in a statement. “The U.S. Supreme Court has the final say in interpreting the Constitution, and the Court has spoken.”

In 2016, in a busy moment on air with CNN’s Anderson Cooperwho criticized Bondi over her opposition to same-sex marriage in Florida in an interview after the Pulse shooting in Orlando, Bondi said she never said she didn’t like gay people. “This is funny,” she said.

Bondi’s campaign ends with Trump University

Four days after Bondi announced that Florida would join New York’s investigation into Trump University, a series of for-profit seminars touting the success of real estate teaching, a $25,000 check from the Trump Foundation was donated to a political group supporting the re-election campaign. Bondi, entitled And Justice for All, 2013.

At the time, New York’s attorney general was looking into Trump’s seminars, which consumers said were scams. Many claimed they paid for course materials and personalized training that were never provided.

Bondi then canceled her plans to sue and cited insufficient grounds to proceed – after Trump’s charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, provided a deposit. According to the Associated Press.

At that time, Bondi said there was nothing wrong with it. about accepting a donation from Trump. She added that it requires a small amount of money compared to the cost of running a statewide campaign and rejected the suggestion that it would make political sense to return the check.

A state’s attorney dropped all charges against her a week after a federal judge approved a $25 million settlement between Trump and students who paid his university for real estate seminars. Bondi claimed she was trying to return the money to the foundation; Trump was fined by the Internal Revenue Service for using charity money for political donations. Using a charity to make political donations is a federal crime.

Florida reaches agreement with BP over oil spill

In 2015, Bondi helped Florida win a settlement of more than $3 billion after the BP oil spill, saying it would prevent the state from falling into a “black hole” of litigation.

Florida received $3.25 billion, of which $2 billion would go toward economic damage, the largest amount of any state. according to a 2015 Associated Press article.

On April 10, 2010, BP’s offshore drilling platform came calling. deep sea horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and left oily waters and beaches along the Florida coast, killing marine life including dolphins, fish and birds.

Of this amount, $680 million was allocated for restoration projects. The state received an initial payment of $400 million in 2016 and will receive $100 million each year until 2033.

Bondi brought dogs to cabinet meetings to help get them adopted

It was not uncommon for Bondi’s furry, four-legged friend to accompany him to the lower level of the Florida Capitol for cabinet meetings.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi often brought dogs from the Leon County Animal Shelter to State Cabinet meetings in hopes of getting them adopted. On April 22, 2014, she found a buyer for “Wrangler,” a mixed breed puppy she was carrying with her to a meeting. room,” wrote then-Democratic Capitol reporter Bill Cotterell.

Wrangler was just one special guest. Socksa black and white Border Collie/Lab mix, was invited to the 2012 Christmas Tree Ceremony.

But one dog caused controversy regarding Bondi. Before becoming attorney general, she went through a custody battle over her dog, a St. Bernard named Master Tank, who was rescued after Hurricane Katrina and adopted by her through the Pinellas County Humane Society.

The dog’s original family in Louisiana tried to get the animal back, but Bondi refused to give it back, telling then-St. Petersburg Times: “I adopted a dog that was a walking skeleton. That’s what was wrong with her before the hurricane.”

Bondi settled the matter with the family and returned the dog, eventually receiving another St. Bernard.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

Ana Goñi-Lessan is a government watchdog reporter for USA TODAY Florida and can be reached at: [email protected].