WASHINGTON — The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey marks a turning point for Attorney General Pam Bondi and her leadership of the Justice Department: critics say it will lead to the death of judicial independence, and allies call it justice being served.

Either way, Bondi has set the stage for presidents to openly use the department to prosecute their political enemies, in a move that could come back to haunt Republicans if Democrats take control of the White House.

“She’s so distorted the Justice Department and its judicial independence,” said attorney Ty Cobb, who was legal counsel in the first Trump administration but now is an open critic of the president. “It will take at least a generation to recover from.”

Comey’s indictment crystalizes the cresting concern over the use of the Justice Department as a political tool for presidents to prosecute their enemies — a precedent Trump accuses Democrats Joe Biden and Barack Obama of setting — with Bondi right in the middle.

Following public pressure from the president, Bondi laid the groundwork for a Virginia grand jury to charge Comey with lying to Congress and obstructing justice. The indictment marks the first time the Department of Justice under Bondi has brought criminal charges against someone who formerly investigated the president — and Trump hinted Friday that more indictments will come.

A lawyer with more than 20 years of prosecutorial experience, Bondi’s allies argue she would not bring a case if there wasn’t enough evidence.

“When I worked with her, she was not a partisan actor,” Democratic former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said. He also pointed to a complicated tension between the traditionally independent role of attorney general and Bondi’s long-standing, close personal friendship with Trump.

“She was not partisan and she is a career prosecutor,” he said. “She is loyal to Donald Trump, she has a genuine affection for Donald Trump, so there are a lot of competing considerations here.”

Donald Trump told reporters Friday morning that the indictment “is about justice, it’s not revenge.”

But it also comes just days after he publicly chided Bondi for not taking action against Comey sooner, and in light of his yearslong vendetta against the former FBI director.

The statute of limitations for charges of lying to Congress was set to expire Sept. 30 for Comey — five years after his 2020 video call testimony from his home in Virginia about the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russian state actors to influence U.S. elections. But Trump’s animosity toward Comey goes even further: In 2016, Comey didn’t recommend charges against Hilary Clinton over her use of a private email server, as Trump was leading resounding “lock her up” calls at his campaign rallies.

Just 10 days ahead of that looming deadline, and after pushing out the former U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Trump leaned on Bondi on Truth Social to hire his former personal attorney Lindsey Halligan to the post and told her it was time for “action” against those he sees as “guilty as hell,” including Comey.

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he wrote on Truth Social Saturday.

By Monday, Halligan — a University of Miami law grad who got her start representing insurance companies in South Florida — was sworn in as interim attorney to the post. By Thursday, the DOJ had secured grand jury charges on two of the three allegations related to Comey’s testimony: one count of lying to Congress about whether he authorized anonymous leaks to reporters about the Russian investigation, and another count of obstruction of justice in a congressional investigation. “No one is above the law,” Bondi said in a statement. “Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.”

Comey said he welcomed a trial to prove his innocence in a video posted on social media Thursday.

“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice,” Comey said. “But I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. And I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”

Comey’s indictment comes after months of public pressure against Bondi from some of the loudest voices in Trump’s base. Florida-based conservative activist Laura Loomer, for example, has taken to calling her “Scam Blondi,” accusing her of lying about Jeffrey Epstein case files, which Bondi has declined to release.

But Florida’s former top prosecutor also has deep ties in Trump’s innermost circle. Bondi joined the administration from Ballard Partners, where she had a strong relationship with Susie Wiles, a former Ballard partner turned White House chief of staff. The two women are tight, bonding over their Florida days and their dedication to Trump.

Bondi is also a close, personal friend of Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, who he is close to and fond of.

And she has a long record as a Trump defender, serving on his defense team in his first impeachment and leading the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned non-profit that was preparing policy plans for a second term.

On Wednesday night, the day before the indictment, Bondi was pictured dining with Trump in the White House rose garden. On Thursday, the day of the indictment, she was standing next to Trump in the Oval Office when he signed executive orders.

“She’s as loyal to President Trump as any person can be. It’s a family relationship,” said Brian Ballard, the founder of Ballard Partners who is close to the president and Bondi.

He added that Trump “always had a real high regard for her. I’ve seen them together and it’s a very friendly relationship, close.”

While Comey’s indictment marks the first criminal charges against one of Trump’s political adversaries, Bondi has taken other steps to make due on Trump’s campaign promise to rid the judiciary of his critics. Under her leadership, the DOJ fired at least three staffers in June who worked on cases against Jan. 6 rioters, including former Tampa-based assistant U.S. attorney Michael Gordon. They’re now suing Bondi and the DOJ, claiming the removals were unconstitutional.

She’s also fired three prosecutors in the Miami-based Southern District of Florida federal court in the past seven months. As The Miami Herald reported, two were fired for their involvement in criminal investigations against Trump, and the most recent over old social media posts in which he was critical of the president.

Bondi also has a long record as a prosecutor. She served two terms as Florida’s attorney general, where she joined several other states in trying to overthrow the Affordable Care Act and defended an amendment to the state’s constitution banning same-sex marriage.

“When I worked with her, she was not a partisan actor, she was not partisan and she is a career prosecutor,” Aronberg, the Democratic former state prosecutor, said. “I don’t have enough information in front of me yet, but I always believed that she would not prosecute Trump’s enemies without sufficient evidence.”

Whether there’s actually enough evidence against Comey will come down to Biden-appointed Judge Michael Nachmanoff, and potentially a jury.

For Bondi, this may be the first of many decisions she’ll be making about prosecutions against Trump’s political enemies.

When asked by reporters Friday who’s up next for criminal charges, Trump said, “It’s not a list, but I think there’ll be others.”

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.