D.C. Firm Ballard Partners Lobbying Department of Justice Run by Former Ballard Lobbyist Pam Bondi, New Filings Show
WASHINGTON, D.C. — New filings by Ballard Partners showing it to be the top earning DC lobbying firm in the second quarter of 2025 also reveal that the firm has been actively lobbying the Department of Justice run by Attorney General Pam Bondi – who herself lobbied for Ballard Partners before she was sworn into office in February. According to Bondi’s financial disclosure report filed in January, she received over $1 million in income from January 2023 to January 2025 as a lobbyist, partner, and chair of the Corporate Regulatory Compliance practice at Ballard.
A Public Citizen analysis of Ballard Partners’ new lobbying filings found that it received $690,000 between April 1 and June 30, 2025 from eight clients including Walgreens, American Express, the National Football League, and two foreign-owned companies – Hillandale Gettysburg, LLC and Paper Excellence Holding Corporation – for lobbying the Department of Justice, other federal agencies, and Congress, on matters ranging from antitrust law to sports betting to the suspension or debarment of federal contractors for violating U.S. law.
Before Bondi was confirmed as Attorney General in February, she signed an Ethics Agreement pledging, for a period of one year, to “not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which I know Ballard Partners is a party or represents a party, unless I am first authorized to participate, pursuant to §5 C.F.R. 2635.502(d).” Because Ballard’s filings don’t specify whom at the Justice Department they have lobbied, Public Citizen is calling on Attorney General Bondi to disclose whether, in her role as Attorney General, she has communicated with lobbyists from Ballard Partners.
“The American people deserve to know whether Attorney General Bondi has been involved with her former firm’s lobbying and if the red carpet is being rolled out for these clients by the Department of Justice because of her former role at Ballard,” said Jon Golinger, democracy advocate with Public Citizen. “If Bondi has been involved with the Ballard firm’s lobbying, she has likely violated the ethics pledge. The American people deserve an Attorney General who always puts their needs above the special interest agendas of former business associates.”