Pam Bondi, Trump’s U.S. Attorney General, may have conflicts of interest in overseeing a review of a deal for Warner Bros. Discovery — and she should recuse herself from a review of any such transaction, two prominent Democratic senators said.

Warner Bros. Discovery has entered into an $83 billion agreement with Netflix, which would acquire Warner Bros.’ studios and HBO Max. David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has mounted a hostile takeover bid, with what it claims are deal terms more favorable to shareholders. On Wednesday, WBD rejected Paramount’s $30/share bid as “inferior” to the Netflix deal and recommended that shareholders reject the Paramount offer. Paramount is sticking with its offer in appealing directly to WBD shareholders.

As the future of WBD’s assets hang in the balance, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called for Bondi to recuse herself from the DOJ’s review of any deal involving WBD because of “potential conflicts of interest related to her former employer, lobbying firm Ballard Partners.” Prior to Trump appointing her attorney general, Bondi spent six years as a lobbyist at Ballard Partners, “a favorite firm among companies with business before the Trump administration.” Since Bondi’s nomination as attorney general, Ballard has taken on both Netflix and Paramount Skydance as clients. According to the senators, Ballard was reportedly involved in the Paramount-Skydance merger earlier this year.

“In line with our anti-corruption oversight and legislative priorities, and given the cloud of corruption surrounding this merger and your former employer Ballard’s potential role in this merger, we ask that you recuse yourself from the review of this purchase,” Warren and Blumenthal wrote in a Sept. 17 letter send to Bondi. The full text of the letter is at this link.

A DOJ rep declined to comment.

According to the senators, the DOJ has “indicated that Bondi will lead the Trump administration’s review of the merger, alongside DOJ Antitrust head Gail Slater.”

The two Democratic senators alleged that “Ballard is already enmeshed in the cloud of corruption surrounding the White House.” They claim that reports “revealed that Ballard lobbyists were instrumental in connecting their corporate clients with fundraisers for President Donald Trump’s ballroom, and nearly half of the corporations known to be funding the ballroom — 11 out of 26 publicly reported corporate donors — are Ballard’s clients.”

In addition, Warren and Blumenthal alleged, Ballard’s involvement has previously raised “questions of improper influence in DOJ deal reviews.” In July, the Justice Department dropped its challenge to the $570 million merger between American Express Global Business Travel and CWT Holdings “after Amex GBT paid Ballard Partners to lobby the DOJ on antitrust matters,” according to the senators.

Bondi signed an ethics agreement pledging not to participate “in any particular matter involving specific parties” in which she knows Ballard Partners “is a party or represents a party” for one year after confirmation, until Feb. 4, 2026. But after the February deadline, “Bondi’s involvement in the Netflix-Paramount matter would raise the appearance of serious impropriety and threaten to violate her obligations as a public servant,” according to Warren and Blumenthal.

“DOJ must guarantee that any review of a potential Warner Bros. transaction is decided based upon the law, not perverted by political favoritism and cronyism — particularly given the stakes of this case for consumers. Regardless of which of these two giant media conglomerates wins the bid for Warner Bros., a takeover will further consolidate the media market — risking higher prices and less variety for consumers,” the senators wrote in the letter.

President Donald Trump last week said he would be “involved” in a review of a Warner Bros. deal. He also opined that CNN should be sold as part of any deal for WBD because “I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue,” Trump said. “I think CNN should be sold along with everything else.” Those comments “[raise] the specter of the President leveraging a possible merger to censor a prominent news network that he has openly criticized,” according to the two senators.