Pam Bondi’s time as attorney general was marked by repeated clashes with ethics officials who tried to stop her from keeping pricey gifts and VIP access, according to a new report from The New Yorker.
Sources familiar with the conversations said Bondi and her team regularly pushed against federal rules designed to limit what officials can accept. Among the items in question were a FIFA soccer ball that Donald Trump tossed her way after a meeting and a box of cigars from UFC star Conor McGregor, who had just lost an appeal in a civil case where he was found liable for sexual assault.
“Every new administration needs time to adjust to ethics rules that might seem trivial,” one source told the magazine. “What wasn’t normal was the amount of pushback that we got.”
In July, as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal dominated headlines, Bondi reportedly pressed to sit in the president’s VIP box at the FIFA Club World Cup finals. Ethics officials warned that doing so could violate federal gift restrictions. Bondi’s staff argued she might need to be there in case Trump required a security briefing. Officials told her she could enter the box if needed, but that was supposed to be the limit.
Despite the warning, Bondi and her husband ended up in the luxury section with Trump, who gave her his familiar thumbs-up, according to the report. A department official later claimed Bondi hadn’t resisted the ethics guidance and that the couple didn’t stay for the entire game.
The back-and-forth over freebies wasn’t an isolated incident. The report describes a recurring pattern of tug-of-war between ethics officers and Bondi’s interpretation of what the rules allowed. Staffers and watchdogs often found themselves in arguments over whether certain perks crossed the line.
Meanwhile, Trump himself seemed eager to accept just about anything. At the same World Cup event, he took the stage with Chelsea Football Club as they celebrated their win, walking away with the original trophy and a medal while soaking in the spotlight.
Bondi’s approach raised eyebrows within the department, with critics saying her attitude blurred the lines between official duties and personal perks. The issue of VIP access and lavish gifts became a consistent theme during her time in office, fueling questions about how strictly she viewed the rules compared to those tasked with enforcing them.
For the ethics officials, the problem wasn’t the rules themselves, which they said most administrations take time to adapt to, but the unusual amount of resistance they faced in Bondi’s case. According to the source, every disputed gift turned into a battle that rarely stayed private for long.