Pam Bondi’s Secret DOJ Email Address Revealed

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It's been quite a week and a lot going on, certainly when it comes to news, once again, out of Washington. As we mentioned earlier, Bloomberg News has learned that the Department of Justice will not be reopening its criminal probe. A former Fed chair, Jay Powell, over cost overruns related to the central bank's renovation project. And that is according to Attorney General Todd Blanch, who spoke exclusively to Bloomberg News senior reporter Miles Miller. Do you believe that Jay Powell acted appropriately? And would you consider criminal investigation into Jay Powell?

Well, I think it's pretty clear he did not act appropriately as far as oversight. And that's what the inspector general concluded over, you know, not not, you know, not making mistakes and not having any sort of oversight over the folks doing billion dollar projects isn't necessarily a crime. And so I'm not going to talk about a criminal investigation.

We closed that criminal investigation, as you know. And and there's nothing we're not reopening a criminal investigation into him. But but but just there's a big difference between whether he did anything wrong and whether he should be held accountable and whether there's any criminal conduct. And and so I think the IG report speaks for itself about what the board did and did not do. And I think that we should focus on on that sort of accountability.

And I think that's what the president expects me to do. And that's what we're doing.

And that, of course, is U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch speaking with our own Miles Miller. Miles is, of course, Bloomberg News senior reporter. And you can catch the full interview, do so with the attorney general. You can find that on Sunday on Bloomberg this weekend. All right. We're staying with news and focus on the White House, Washington. You know, at this time, we also like to check in with Jason Leopold, who uses the Freedom of Information Act to uncover a lot of information. And it really is a goal of understanding the U.S. government, how it works, or does it at times. This time around, he dug into a former U.S. Attorney General and her secret email address.

So let's get the story with Jason Leopold. He's Bloomberg News' senior investigative reporter. He's the author of of the FOIA Files newsletter. It comes out each Friday. You can read it, subscribe to it on the Bloomberg Terminal or by going to Bloomberg.com slash newsletters. He also hosts the podcast Disclosure.

He's a busy dude, we like to remind you. He's also executive producer of the documentary The Real Wolf of Wall Street. Find that on streaming. He is back with us from LA. I was just in your neck of the woods. It was a little warm there.

I know.

Well, it was literally about a 24-hour trip.

Oh, man. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We miss each other next time. Definitely.

Talk to us about what you've been up to break this one down and what you want to know about Pam Bondi.

Sure. So people don't.

The public probably is completely unaware that that this takes place.

But the Department of Justice.

It has a practice that attorneys general, any attorney general that's that's serving their email address.

It's an alias that they use.

It's not Pam Bondi or Pamela Bondi at USDOJ.gov, which is generally how many of the emails there are. It's a secret email address. And for the past, this is going to reveal a lot about me.

For the past 12 years, every time an attorney general leaves, exits the Justice Department, I file a FOIA request to find out what their email alias is.

And there's always a story behind the email alias they chose. And for example, Eric Holder, he used Lou Alcindor, which was.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's birth name.

Other attorneys general have used the names of a high school or street they grew up on, grandparents, great-grandparents. And this is a practice. By the way, it may seem like, Jason, you're a weirdo. Why are you doing that? Why are you filing for these records? But I want to get on a serious note that for people like me who request government documents, particularly documents from the attorney general, if you don't know what the alias is, An agency FOIA officer may not be able to locate the records during a search. Anyway, Pam Bondi was out at DOJ in April.

I immediately filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out what that email alias is. And you'd think that would be something that they would respond to quickly.

But it took six months. Six months?

Well, April, I mean, it feels like six months. So, yeah.

Is that fast or slow? Because you've done some FOIA files that have taken a long time.

Yeah.

No, this is slow for one simple request, which is not even a document.

It's just like, give me the email alias. But you said and you just sort of touched on it. But I mean, how do these why does it matter that they have an alias, I guess? And then what does that mean for a reporter like yourself? I mean, in terms of just sheer transparency.

Exactly. Thank you for asking that question.

One, they have these email aliases in place that the DOJ says is to protect against security threats.

Spam, hacking, that's essentially what it's there for.

But the DOJ is not being transparent when they're doing that because obviously during their time that they're serving, nobody knows what the email alias is. It remains secret. So when you're trying to obtain records from the Department of Justice through the Freedom of Information Act, it means that a FOIA officer may not be able to capture all the records. Now, DOJ says that they already know, you know, what the email alias is, but it's not the same as knowing exactly where to look.

And so... Yes.

No, keep going.

Keep going.

I was just going to say, we finally got Pam Bondi's email alias. It's Grace May. Grace.May, M-A-Y-E, at USDOJ.gov. That's what she used during her 14-month tenure. Usually, as I mentioned, there's a story behind it. And this one is very simple. It was Grace May is the name of Bondi's maternal grandmother.

Hey, one thing I want to ask you, what do you do with it now? Like, can you get then do more requests under this email now?

Yeah. And, you know, we're sharing it with the public.

It's, you know, I consider it a public service, you know, that now I'm going to, you know, file a request for, you know, for certain emails, emails on certain subjects using that, you know, that email address and directing the agency that this is where, you know, they should search for the email account that they should search. So, I think it's really important in the interest of transparency of, you know, like I said, while it may seem, you know, it's one of my sort of side FOIA projects. But I'm trying to make it easier for the public and even, you know, for me to just be able to obtain some of these records.

So it took a FOIA.

To find out what it is.

And now other FOIAs to go after some of this.

So wait, Jason.

So when you get the alias email and you find it out from the government, do you go on like a little investigation of your own to figure out why they chose that particular email?

Yes. That's the fun part.

That's fun.

So wait a minute though.

That is the fun part.

I read that one of them stumped you.

Somebody used Abraham Rose as their email.

What was that about? So that was Merrick Garland.

And, you know, I was actually going through Bible passages.

I couldn't figure out what this was.

And it turns out that, you know, a grandfather named Abraham, grandmother named Rose. It was actually another Bloomberg editor who actually who figured it out because I was left stumped. And so to me, that's just sort of the fun part. As you know, you know, I like to also have fun with the FOIA. And, you know, this was this is fun, but it's also, you know, it's going to lead me down the path of now trying to trying to get documents on a more on a higher level.

It's amazing, too, how many, and I guess this makes sense. I think about when I have to do, I shouldn't even say, but when you have to come up with kind of names or something to remember, be it a password. Like, you do lean on sometimes family, grandmothers, mothers, right, maiden names. You do things like that.

Yeah.

And that's why, you know, that's why, like, just kind of putting the puzzle together is fun. Hey, you know, we're working really hard here. You got to have fun every now and then, even with the FOIA.

Fun with the FOIA.

That's, like, going to be a thing now.

Fun with the FOIA.

Well, especially after I feel like so much of what you have to do is real serious. So I'm going to turn to that. Like, what's, what are you thinking about now? That's kind of interesting, especially as we get ready for midterms, we're trying to figure out what comes next.

Yeah.

I mean, the midterms being a month away, what that's going to mean if Congress changes hands, Democrats are in control. You know, we're seeing what's happening with the poll numbers as.

Far as the House.

And, you know, what are the investigations that they are going to launch? Because we know that there's going to be lots and lots of investigations and probably should come as no surprise.

But anyway.

Investigating Epstein and the Justice Department's handling of that is.

Going to continue.

There's going to be an attempt to get more documents that the Department of Justice has withheld.

So kind of getting a sense.

Of what that will look like, which will probably dominate the next two years.

So if you were Attorney General, what would your secret email be?

Good question.

I was trying to figure that out with Todd Blanche. Doing a deep dive. Again, side project. Maybe I could pull it out before, find out that email address.

Before he actually leaves.

He could be like a PI now. It's a side job for you, Jason. I think what's just so funny is it's a pretty serious job, right? But they kind of have some fun with this.

Yes, exactly. Um, and so do I.

All right. You do, you do, which is, which is lovely. And we appreciate as always.

Thank you, Jason.

Be well next time in LA.

Have a great weekend. Yeah. You too.

Jason Leopold. He's Bloomberg news, senior investigative reporter. He is the author of the FOIA files newsletter. It comes out every Friday. Read it and subscribe on the Bloomberg Terminal. You can also head to Bloomberg.com slash newsletters. He's also host of the podcast Disclosure. We've talked to you about the new documentary that he executive produced. It's The Real Wolf of Wall Street.

Pam Bondi’s Secret DOJ Email Address Revealed

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