It was just a few years ago when Carolina Amesty was elected to Florida’s state legislature and quickly earned a reputation as a rising star in the state Republican Party. That, however, was before she ran into serious legal trouble.
According to federal investigators, Amesty allegedly engaged in fraud while obtaining Covid relief funds. According to a criminal complaint, Amesty sought funds through a foundation and a car dealership that might not have existed and used the money for personal expenses. Federal investigators also said they believe some of the money she received went to a private Christian college she helped run. Amesty has long insisted that she did nothing wrong.
Now, however, the former GOP state legislator no longer has to worry about these allegations. The Tampa Bay Times reported:
The federal government is no longer seeking an indictment against Carolina Amesty, attorneys for the former lawmaker say, citing ‘significant exculpatory material’ her defense has provided in the case. The criminal investigation into Amesty, who was accused of fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief loans in 2020 while working as an administrator for her family’s university, has ended, her attorney Brad Bondi wrote in a motion filed in federal court Wednesday.
Take another look at that last line of the excerpt and you might notice a familiar name: Amesty was represented by Brad Bondi, who happens to be Attorney General Pam Bondi’s brother. (Amesty hired her lawyer a few weeks after his sister was tapped to serve as the nation’s chief law enforcement official.)
In other words, federal investigators filed a criminal complaint against Amesty, and later Pam Bondi’s Justice Department decided not to pursue charges against Brad Bondi’s client.
There have been a variety of reports about this in recent days from several independent news organizations, and they all include similar elements: Amesty has long maintained her innocence; her defense attorney said they presented the Justice Department with compelling evidence; and the DOJ has said the decision to drop the matter is unrelated to any familial or political considerations. In fact, a Justice Department spokesperson explicitly told ABC News in a statement, “This decision was made through proper channels and the attorney general had no role in it.”
But consider the larger context to all of this.
Donald Trump’s Justice Department has a serious credibility problem. In recent months, Americans have seen the DOJ purge employees who worked on cases the president didn’t like. We’ve seen Bondi play the role of a hyperpartisan activist aligned with the White House’s political agenda. We’ve seen Bondi fire her personal ethics adviser. We’ve even seen Bondi’s DOJ drop other cases against defendants with political ties to the White House.
Patty Hartman, a 17-year former Justice Department official who was fired after having worked on Jan. 6 cases, recently told CBS News, “The rules don’t exist anymore.” She added, “There used to be a line, used to be a very distinct separation between the White House and the Department of Justice, because one should not interfere with the work of the other. That line is very definitely gone.” In a social media post, Hartman went on to write, “We appear to be driving straight into an abyss that holds no memory of what democracy is, was, or should be.” With this in mind, as the decision to drop the case against Amesty comes to public attention, an awkward question hangs overhead: Have Bondi and the Justice Department earned the benefit of the doubt? Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor, recently wrote in The New York Times about the Justice Department suffering a “credibility crisis” inside courtrooms and out. If administration officials expect that crisis to fade anytime soon, they should probably lower their expectations. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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