'Off-the-charts bad': Watchdog warns Bondi could enable widespread corruption if confirmed
President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) will likely be a key vehicle of his promised retribution agenda. But a watchdog group is now warning that if Pam Bondi is confirmed as attorney general, it could also potentially open the floodgates to corruption and self-dealing.
Politico reported recently that Attorney General-designate Pam Bondi's DOJ could be one in which corporate special interests cash in on their access to the executive branch. Bondi — who has as of yet not resigned from her job as a top lobbyist for the firm Ballard Partners — has lobbied on behalf of some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies including Amazon, Uber, General Motors and Fidelity National Financial among others.
One particularly significant potential conflict of interest is Bondi's lobbying on behalf of GEO Group, which is one of the biggest private prison contractors in the United States. Politico reported that GEO Group is paid hundreds of millions of dollars in federal government contracts, and Trump is likely to lean on private prison operators if his mass deportations agenda comes to fruition.
If confirmed, Bondi would also oversee the DOJ's ongoing investigation into UnitedHealth Group, which would give her jurisdiction over one of her current lobbying clients (Ballard started lobbying on behalf of UnitedHealthcare Services, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, last summer). President Joe Biden's administration has been blocking UnitedHealth's attempted acquisition of hospice care company Amedisys. And before he was killed earlier this week in New York City, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was being investigated by the DOJ for alleged insider trading.
Read more: https://www.alternet.org/bondi-corruption/
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