Attorney General Pam Bondi faces accusations of making changes to Justice Department policy that may have benefited pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Before serving in her current role, Bondi provided outside legal counsel for Pfizer.
For the past several years, Pfizer has been under investigation for possible foreign bribery related to its activities in China and Mexico.
However, reports claim the company’s filings no longer mentioned the probe after Bondi became the nation’s top prosecutor.
Pfizer had been under DOJ investigation for possible foreign bribery. After Bondi, a former outside counsel for Pfizer, became AG, the company’s filings no longer mentioned the probe. Soon after, the administration paused new foreign corruption cases.https://t.co/TxrG17wFyK
— Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) July 10, 2025
Reuters stated in January this year:
Disclosures by President Donald Trump’s U.S. Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi and her former lobbying firm offer a peek into her finances, and at how Ballard Partners’ fortunes have grown as Trump’s political revival gained steam.
Bondi reported earning $1.06 million from the Tallahassee-founded firm, where she was a partner and represented the Florida Sheriff’s Association and Major County Sheriffs of America.
She also recorded $203, 738 in income working as a lawyer with Fort Lauderdale law firm Panza, Maurer & Maynard, according to her federal disclosure this month to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. She listed pharma giant Pfizer as a past client.
Bondi disclosed she made $520,000 in consulting fees from the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank. The group’s website lists her as chair of its Center for Litigation and co-chair of its Center for Law and Justice.
The Senate voted to confirm Bondi as attorney general on February 4th in a 54-46 vote.
According to the Miami Herald, Pfizer’s most recent annual report, filed shortly after Bondi took office, did not refer to the DOJ investigations for possible foreign bribery.
BREAKING: The DOJ dropped its investigation into Pfizer for possible foreign bribery after Pam Bondi, who previously served as outside counsel for Pfizer, became Attorney General.
— The General (@GeneralMCNews) July 10, 2025
More from the Miami Herald:
In the company’s most recent annual report, filed three weeks after Bondi took office in early February, there was no longer any reference to the Justice Department investigations into the company’s potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act. A quarterly report in May also contains no reference to these investigations.
On her first day in office, Bondi rolled back the enforcement of foreign corruption cases that didn’t involve drug cartels and international criminal organizations, among a host of sweeping changes she made to the department’s priorities. That move was followed five days later, on Feb. 10, by a related executive order issued by President Donald Trump that paused new foreign corruption investigations and enforcement actions.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Justice Department also reportedly reduced the number of attorneys working on such cases and closed nearly half of existing foreign corruption cases.
Bondi’s stated goal in making the changes was “Removing Bureaucratic Impediments to Aggressive Prosecutions,” but the actions she and President Trump took were widely seen as a signal that the Justice Department would be less interested in pursuing allegations that major corporations like Pfizer paid bribes to win business abroad.
Pfizer is among several companies that filed financial documents this year suggesting that the Justice Department had dropped their federal corruption investigations.
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen raised concerns about Bondi’s relationship with Pfizer in a letter sent last month to the Senate Judiciary Committee and questions how she may have played a role in the department’s apparent decision to drop the case.
In light of the accusations, Bondi faces increased calls for her firing or resignation.
