Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was tapped by Donald Trump as U.S. attorney general Thursday, hours after his first choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration following a federal sex trafficking investigation and a probe ethics raised doubts about his ability to be confirmed.
Bondi, 59, has long been in Trump’s orbit, and her name had been mentioned during his first term as a possible candidate for the office.
If confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans have a majority, Bondi would instantly become one of the most closely watched members of Trump’s Cabinet, given the Republican’s threat to retaliate against his adversaries and concerns among Democrats that he will seek to subdue to the Department of Justice at will.
Bondi has been a longtime Trump ally. In March 2016, on the eve of the Republican primary in Florida, Bondi endorsed Trump at a rally, choosing him over his own state’s candidate, Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
She gained national attention with appearances on Fox News as a Trump supporter and had a notable speaking spot at the 2016 Republican National Convention, when Trump surprisingly became the party’s nominee. During the speech, some in the crowd began chanting “Lock her up,” in reference to Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Bondi responded by saying: ”’Lock her up,’ I love that.”
When Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was ousted in 2018, Bondi’s name was mentioned as a possible candidate for the job. Trump at the time said he would “love” for Bondi to join the administration. He finally selected William Barr.
She remained in Trump’s orbit after that, even after he left office. She served as president of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank established by former members of the Trump administration to lay the groundwork should he win a second term.
Bondi made history in 2010 when she was elected Florida’s first female attorney general. Although the Tampa native spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County State’s Attorney’s Office, she was a political unknown when she took the state’s top law enforcement job.
He campaigned on a message of using the state’s attorney general’s office robustly and challenging then-President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. He also called for his state to adopt Arizona’s “show me your papers” immigration law, which sparked a national debate.
As Florida’s top prosecutor, Bondi emphasized human trafficking problems and called for toughening the state’s laws against traffickers. He held the position from 2011 to 2019.
Bondi was part of Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020.
Bondi has been an outspoken critic of the criminal cases against Trump, as well as Jack Smith, the special counsel who charged Trump in two federal cases. In a radio appearance, he criticized Smith and other prosecutors who have charged Trump, whom he described as “horrible people” who were trying to make a name for themselves by “going after Donald Trump and using our legal system as a weapon.”
Bondi is unlikely to be confirmed in time to coincide with Smith, who filed two federal indictments against Trump that are expected to be concluded before the next president takes office.
Bondi would inherit a Justice Department that is expected to change dramatically on civil rights, corporate issues and the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters charged over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, whom Trump has promised to pardon. .
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