This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

- Coming up on Florida This Week: She rose from Temple Terrace to the top of the United States Justice Department.

Now, Pam Bondi is out of a job and declining a congressional subpoena.

Plus, facing pushback from her own law school.

Also, the war with Iran may be on a pause, but the nerve center of that conflict is right here in Tampa Bay.

What does the role of MacDill Air Force Base during a tense ceasefire mean for this community?

Voter registration mailers are hitting Florida mailboxes, some addressed to children, some even to pets and dead people.

What voters need to know before the August primary.

And tax day is on Tuesday.

Scammers are ready.

Are you?

AI is cloning voices and impersonating the IRS in Florida is one of the top three states in the country for fraud losses.

Florida This Week starts now.

Welcome back.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Joining us on the panel today, Michael Van Sickler, political editor of the Tampa Bay Times.

Attorney and Stetson Law graduate.

Johnny Bardine, attorney and legal expert.

Tara Newsom and Jackie Callaway, a media strategist and consumer protections advocate.

She grew up in Temple Terrace.

She went to law school at Stetson in Gulfport, and she became Florida's first female attorney general.

For the past 14 months, Pamela Jo Bondi was the top law enforcement officer in the United States.

That is until April the 2nd, when President Trump announced that she was no longer part of his cabinet.

- Pam Bondi is a trusted friend of President Trump's.

Will remain so.

And no, nobody has any idea why the attorney general is no longer the attorney general and I'm the acting attorney general, except for President Trump.

- The administration contends that Bondi wasn't aggressive enough going after Trump's perceived political enemies and now reportedly back in Florida.

Bondi's story is far from over.

She is declining to appear before Congress in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

Her attorney argues the subpoena does not apply now that she's no longer the attorney general.

- Why she wouldn't want to answer questions about this incredibly important case to so many survivors, and quite frankly, the entire American public is bizarre.

If she doesn't come forward under her legal subpoena, which still stands, by the way.

Then we will hold Pam Bondi in contempt and we will begin that process within the Congress.

- Epstein survivors say they've waited nearly three decades for answers.

And right here in St.

Petersburg, a growing coalition is demanding that Stetson Law School strip Bondi of her honors.

Joining us on the set is the fellow Stetson alumni leading this pushback against Bondi attorney John Bardeen.

Thank you to all of you.

Thank you for joining us.

Johnny, I'd like to start with you.

Tell us about this alumni letter writing campaign.

You started it before Bondy was fired.

And how does her firing change things for you, or does it not?

Do you still continue?

- Thanks for having me here.

Yeah.

We initiated the letter following Pam Bondi's testimony on February 11th in front of the House Judiciary Committee, in which I found her testimony to be sort of contradictory of what I was taught to be as a lawyer.

I found her testimony to be deflective and non-substantive or demeanor to be unprofessional and contrary to the law, she was required to release these files under the Transparency Act, and did it in a dilatory fashion.

And when she did, it was sloppily redacted.

And, um, and I was not, um, engendered with any optimism that the job was being done.

Well after the.

- How many alumni from Stetson have signed this at this point?

- So I initiated the letter following that and, and mailed it on February 23rd.

And we, we garnered over 400 signatures in six days.

And in the in the six weeks that have passed, um, several more.

- And what is it that you all are asking Stetson Law School to do?

- Well, and I think it's a reasonable ask.

We're asking the College of Law to reaffirm its ethical principles so that we can impress upon the public that this is not who we are and what we stand for and how we behave as lawyers, or asking for a public disapproval of this conduct.

And then following some silence from the law school, we've renewed those requests and asked that the law school rescind some honorifics that they've extended to Pam Bondi.

- Michael, you've done extensive stories on Pam Bondi on her first year.

You know, talk about her roots in Temple Terrace.

What has been the reaction from the Tampa Bay community to her firing?

- Well, I mean, Democrats long ago have expressed their disappointment in Pam Bondi.

That was a fact when she was attorney general for Florida.

Um, what I found surprising, ever since she got the job of U.S.

Attorney General, is a fair amount of Republicans locally have increasingly expressed their disappointment, especially with their handling of the Epstein files.

A lot of people thought she was not forthcoming enough, and her messaging was very confusing.

And for a lot of Republicans in Tampa Bay, I think they gave her a little leeway.

But by the time of that February 11th testimony, they had it because she just wasn't answering questions.

And it was just a very, very confusing to them.

- And people who do support Pam Bondi say that she has been placed in a very difficult position, and they point to successes that she had when she was Florida attorney general.

Um, you know, suing the pharmaceutical companies and a very strong supporter of domestic violence awareness victims, domestic violence awareness advocates and domestic violence survivors.

And so when you look at what's going on with her now, um, what do you think would be her biggest problem at this point?

Michael?

- Well, when she was Florida attorney general, one of her main things was sex trafficking.

And she made that a very big plank of her eight years in office.

She made it a very big campaign issue in both elections.

And to see her give that testimony in February 11th, where she didn't even look at the victims of the Epstein, uh, situation.

It was just kind of like, again, I think a lot of people looking at Bondi now are like, what happened?

We knew you when you were at the State Attorney's office.

We just don't recognize this person.

And I think that finally came home for Republicans in the last year.

- Tara, what does her firing talk tell us about the current structure of the relationship between the White House and the Justice Department, just putting aside all of the politics.

Constitutionally, legally, what does it tell us about the structure that has been in place?

- Well, first off, we know that the president has the article, article two power to set his cabinet and encourage resignation.

Right.

But what it does show is that there's a lock step between the Department of Justice and the White House.

It's clear that the kind of justice that the White House and President Trump wanted out of the Department of Justice wasn't being done through Pam Bondi, despite her caustic behavior at the House Judiciary Committee and the temperament that almost every lawyer and judge that ever watched her behavior in front of Congress really elicited.

I mean, that's why she has contempt charges hanging over her head.

But just remember, historically, she served 14 months.

She's the shortest tenure of an attorney general.

And we've also never seen an acting attorney general like Todd Blanche, who was the personal attorney, defense attorney for the president.

So this is all very unprecedented.

We don't really have a lot to go on, but we know that the Department of Justice and the White House seem to be seamless right now, and that Todd Blanche is expected to pick up where Pam Bondi didn't do the job.

- Johnny, what were you going to weigh in on?

- I was going to echo that.

What we've seen here is a radical departure of how the Department of Justice and the White House have have behaved concurrently throughout our whole history.

You know, in the past, they've had parallel tracks so that there can be some sort of impartiality and independence and not to do the bidding of the White House.

And that's exactly what we're seeing here.

And it's alarming to me how quickly that's been normalized.

- With the picture of the president on the Department of Justice.

That certainly doesn't look like any other time in the history.

- And you're referring to the image of him on the outside of the building, right.

We're going to move on to our next story.

40 days of intense warfare have given way to a fragile two week ceasefire between the U.S.

and Iran.

Now, despite the pronouncements of diplomats and leaders, many observers are wondering if there's truly a ceasefire at all.

The nerve center of this war has been right here in Florida.

U.S.

Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa directed more than 13,000 strikes, coordinating every branch of the military.

At the Pentagon, defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared victory and issued this warning.

- In less than 40 days, one of our combatant commands, Central Command CENTCOM, using less than 10% of America's total combat power dismantled one of the world's largest militaries.

- CENTCOM forces destroyed approximately 80% of Iran's air defense systems, striking more than 1500 air defense targets.

- The ceasefire is already being tested by continued attacks throughout the Middle East.

Iran's enriched uranium remains unresolved.

The Strait of Hormuz is supposed to be open to shipping, but most of the ships are not making the passage out of safety concerns.

And General Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, struck a noticeably more cautious tone when he was asked about an end to hostilities.

Caine said flatly, quote, "A ceasefire is a pause."

End quote.

MacDill Air Force Base has effectively been the nerve center of all of this.

What does this mean for our economy, for the Tampa Bay economy, our culture here?

I'd like to start with you, Mike.

- Well, MacDill has always been a point of pride for our community.

It's a... You got nearly 20,000 military personnel.

These are really good, smart people, great jobs.

So, um, the spending power, the intellectual and cultural, um, improvements that they bring to the community are huge.

But in this case, in this war, um, you know, you have a president who didn't really build support for it.

It's really not clear what the plan is.

And I think even, you know, we had that, um, Senate district race, uh, the precincts with MacDill in it went Democratic.

And this is the same precinct that, um, two years ago, we're solidly behind Trump.

The military usually skews Republicans.

So I think that is even a sign of fatigue.

Um, maybe of nonsupport even in MacDill for this war.

- Tara, what are the constitutional questions about, uh, around the War Powers Act, the War powers resolution, the president has not declared a formal war.

Congress has not.

What are the questions that you're looking at?

- Right.

So we know article one says that Congress can, of course, declare war, but the president is not restricted in short term operations or an immediate threat.

And so, of course, the president's whole point in this is that there was an immediate threat of nuclear proliferation from Iran onto US.

But this week alone, the House is calling together another war powers resolution against Iran.

And the Senate has signaled that next week they're going to be taken on.

But the numbers aren't there to actually be able to limit the president.

And so hopefully, the court of public opinion will start pressuring the president to really turn away from this war and start dialing it down and not put boots on the ground.

- Jackie, so many folks are watching this following this because of the economic impacts, the Strait of Hormuz may be open, but how are consumers in the state of Florida affected by by this situation?

- I want us to stop saying the words, seeing higher gas prices.

That's we're past that point.

The entire region and just like most of the United States is feeling like a widespread and painful ripple effect.

Things that we don't even think about, like petroleum is used to make hard and soft plastics.

Your sandwich bags, your garbage bags, your Tupperware, all of that's costing more.

We're paying more.

Commuters are paying right now when they fill their tanks 15 to $25 more per tank.

We all know that what goes up quickly comes down very slowly.

Yesterday at the market close, the price of crude was down about 17%.

And I'm driving around Tampa this morning and gas prices are down maybe 4%.

Everything that we do commuting, delivery drivers, the cost of food, energy prices, um, the airlines are now adding on extra fees for our bags to cover their losses.

And then you had Amazon just announce a vendor fee to cover their losses.

- And in the news lately, we've seen the changes that are going on in the Department of War with Pete Hegseth dismissing top ranking Officials during this critical time?

What are there any legal guardrails that prevent that from happening?

- Well, let's just put it out there that the Department of War can only be changed to the Department of War by Congress.

So it is that isn't the official name.

Despite the rhetoric.

But, you know, the truth of the matter is, is that it's very difficult, difficult for Congress and the president to get to an agreement right now.

We have a very bloated military spending, and this Iranian war is actually making it go up.

We have $39 trillion deficit.

Most traditional Republicans want to have a strong military, but not go into this kind of military entanglement without a way out because of the cost and of course, the consumer costs, but predominantly to the Tampa Bay area with our MacDill, our men and women and their families and service are being put at risk who are so very proud of.

So this has a far reaching impact, but I certainly think it's very difficult right now.

Unless Congress acts to stop the president, we might see this drag on.

- We're going to move on to our next topic.

Florida's August primary is on the horizon.

Election supervisors across the state are warning of misleading mailers on voter registration.

In Leon County, for example, nearly 4,000 residents received this very official looking letter from a third party organization, not the Leon County Elections Office.

The mailers contain outdated and in some cases, flat out wrong information.

Some were addressed to kids, others were addressed to pets, even to voters who have been dead for a number of years.

These scams are nothing new, and they do happen most election cycles.

However, officials are warning that it fuels confusion and distrust among Florida's 13.4 million registered voters.

Jackie, I'd like to start with you.

What we what can we look at?

What are the problems with all of this new trend that's happening?

- We're talking about the mailers.

I think that any time that you get.

We all kind of know what a mail-in ballot looks like at this point, but I've always said go to the source.

If there's a phone number or there's a website on what you're seeing in the mail and it doesn't look exactly right, or there's one iota of information that's wrong.

Go to the source.

Supervisors of elections offices and all 67 counties have very robust websites with very clear wording and contact information and ways to contact them.

Five minutes of research is all this takes, or a quick call to what you have deemed as a credible source.

With that office will straighten up any confusion.

- Tara, are these mailers illegal?

- They're not illegal.

And they are also the actual forms to register in the state of Florida.

Um, this is an outside 501(c)3 that's helped 6.8 million voters over the last two decades connect with their right to vote.

We may not like it, but in the state of Florida, we've caught the attention of national organizations that don't necessarily like our changing laws that try to limit third party organizations from voter registration that predominantly benefits Democrats and marginalized voters.

So those outside organizations are coming in and it may disrupt some, uh, understanding of whether this is real or not, but their actual forms to register to vote in the state of Florida.

It's not illegal.

And I think it's a real tip of the hat that national organizations are watching us to see how we have obstacles to voter registration.

- Johnny, what are you going to say something?

- Yeah.

In a past life, I was an election protection attorney for campaigns.

And this has been a pervasive problem that's just been escalating since then.

And so I agree that if you see something screwy, call the supervisor of elections.

They'll help you out.

And, um, and just, you know, we've heard a lot about voter fraud in the news, but it seems to be, um, the only fraud I see is designed to franchise unsophisticated voters and people who might not be aware of what's happening.

- Well, voter fraud voter, the attention to voter registrations is certainly not the only thing the federal tax deadline is just days away.

That's also creating a lot of concern.

Tuesday, April the 15th to be exact, is tax Day.

Scammers know it.

Florida ranks in the top three states nationally for online fraud losses.

Nearly $8 billion were lost in 2024 alone, and the threat of scams has only increased with the rapid advances of artificial intelligence.

AI, believe it or not, is being used to clone the voices, impersonate IRS officials and generate phishing emails that could fool just about anyone.

It's part of what the IRS calls its, quote, "Dirty Dozen" the 12 biggest tax scams.

Plus, there's new tax rules for throngs of Florida hospitality workers.

Changes to what you owe on tips and overtime are creating fresh confusion that fraudsters are already exploiting.

Jackie, I'd like to start with you.

What are some of the things that you're that you're seeing in this?

- A couple of things haven't changed in recent years.

The use of technology to full taxpayers.

But first I wanted to talk about we're using the term ghost preparers.

This has always been around, but they were just referred to as rogue or fraudulent preparers.

They pop up all over Tampa Bay.

They're usually in strip shopping centers just for a brief period of time during tax season.

You see their little cardboard signs at all the intersections.

They're offering big refunds in the thousands.

Here's the thing.

When they do your return, they charge an extraordinary amount of money for a very basic return.

I'm talking about $900, $1,000.

They don't because they're not real tax preparers.

They don't put their IRS tax preparer number on your return.

They don't sign it.

They often put on your return fraudulent deductions to boost the amount that you're going to get.

And then they get your bank account information so that when you do get that big return, that's not really yours because they've put the wrong information on your return.

Then they pull a very high fee out of your checking account.

And if the IRS at any point comes to audit you, these people are long gone and you're the one that stuck with the liability.

- When you look at all the questions around the big, beautiful bill and people are trying to figure out what can I deduct from my taxes or not?

Is there enough guidance for people to actually do their taxes?

Where can they go with their questions?

- Well, IRS.gov, I will say, despite the, you know, the layoffs that they had in the last year, they have been pretty robust about getting information out to people, putting information on their website.

So if you want to file, you want to report a preparer or you want to report fraud, they have forms to do that.

They have a taxpayer assistance office where you can actually call, speak to a real person.

And then the IRS just recently announced that through, I think, April 20th, they're going to be expanding hours at all of their locations and open on Saturdays.

So you can go to IRS.gov, find the answers there.

If you want to go old school, you can meet with someone in person.

- But if you if you have a tax preparer who will not sign it or give you their identification number, you would say that's your first warning sign, walk away.

- And I would say run and report them, right?

Because if they don't have that TIN, that tax preparer number, they are not a legitimate preparer.

- Tara.

If someone falls victim to a scam, what recourse do they have in Florida?

- Well, they go first to the Federal Trade Organization and file a form that they've had an issue.

They also have to file a police report.

And then the IRS has a special form for identity theft, and they need to file that form.

So there's a paper trail that while they unfold all of their conflict, that they have actually documented what has happened and they should be able to have relief.

- Okay.

Before before we run out of time, I want to make sure we do our big stories of the week.

Michael, I'd like to start with you.

What are the other?

What's the other big story that you're going to be following?

- I caught up with, um, former Governor Charlie Crist this week to talk to him about what he's been doing since he lost to DeSantis in 2022, because we all know he's getting ready to run for mayor of St.

Pete, and he's raised nearly $1 million.

He hasn't declared yet, but he's getting in position.

So what I found out was he's had an interesting journey since then.

- And when can we read this story?

- Should be this weekend.

- Okay.

- Tara, you know, I'm right with Michael on paying attention to St.

Pete and St.

Pete's mayor's race.

We have a really interesting number of individual things that are going on in St.

Pete that people are paying attention to, one of which is our very interesting sculpture, the bending sculpture, the Janet Echelman sculpture that Mayor Kriseman fought very hard with private donors to bring to St.

Pete from the Portugal artist.

And it's been sitting in a closet for two years since the hurricane.

Nobody in St.

Pete wants anything in a closet, so we're watching that as an indicator of how local politics in St.

Peter are unfolding.

And that will be one of the many issues that will come up with Charlie Crist and the other mayoral candidates in St.

Pete.

- Johnny, what would you say is the thing that you're watching closely.

- After Pam Bondi's firing?

The Department of Justice indicated that she won't appear at her subpoenaed testimony on April 14th.

So I'm taking a look at that.

And my position is that regardless of her employment, that subpoena is still valid.

And if and this is exactly what congressional oversight is ensured to protect.

- So it seems that there are also voices that are growing louder, that are talking about possibly filing requests to have her disbarred from the state of Florida.

Have you heard anything about that?

- Well, yes.

You know, while she was attorney general, the Florida bar as a ruling that they weren't going to take any disciplinary action against a public official while they were in office.

That's no longer the case.

So I think that could be a renewed focus on something that I'll be looking at.

Yeah.

- Jackie, what would you say is the big story?

- I think hands down, number one, listening to consumers, the number one consumer concern in Florida right now is affordability housing, energy insurance.

They were very clear across Florida.

Every homeowner and every voter and our lawmakers went to Tallahassee.

And I don't I haven't seen that anything got done property taxes, insurance, energy costs.

And so my concern is that we're not paying attention to what people really feel is important to them in their pocketbooks.

- Thankfully, we do have organizations in our community that are here to help that are offering, um, consumers some assistance.

Can you remind us of what those are?

- Yes.

Catholic Charities is a great place to turn.

Sometimes we'll help one off with an electric bill or something like that.

St.

Vincent de Paul in general.

Everyone can remember this.

Call 211.

That's a referral line.

They will refer you to resources for help.

And also, it never hurts to.

If you're struggling with things like utility bills, to contact your actual utility and find out if you can get on a hardship program.

Everyone's heard of Feeding Tampa Bay.

They can direct you to the community food bank, so you can go once or twice a week and pick up groceries.

- And if you know someone, maybe you're lucky enough that you don't need the help, but you know someone who might please share the information.

Thank you so much for coming on such a busy week.

We appreciate your time.

- Thanks so much, I appreciate you.

- Again, thank you to our panelists, Michael Van Sickler, Tara Newsom, Johnny Bardine and Jackie Callaway.

On behalf of the entire team here at WEDU.

Thank you so much for watching.

We know you have plenty of choices for your news and information, and we thank you for choosing us.