Trump nominates Pam Bondi as US Attorney-General after Gaetz withdrawal
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If confirmed, Ms Pam Bondi would be heading a department at the centre of many of Trump’s key policy initiatives, including plans to ramp up immigration enforcement and border security.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW YORK – US President-elect Donald Trump
A fierce defender of the former president, Ms Bondi, 59, has repeated Trump’s claims that the department’s investigations of his conduct have been laced with politics. If confirmed for the role by the US Senate, she would oversee everything from defending controversial government policies in court to doling out billions of dollars in federal grants.
With Ms Bondi, Trump would get an experienced conservative lawyer without the political and legal baggage that forced Mr Gaetz to bow out earlier on Nov 21.
The President-elect has said he will push for a radical transformation of the Justice Department, which has more than 115,000 employees.
“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime, and making America safe again,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform on Nov 21. “I have known Pam for many years – she is smart and tough, and is an America First fighter, who will do a terrific job as attorney-general!”
First Impeachment
Ms Bondi has been a loyal Trump ally for years. In 2020, she served on Trump’s legal defence team during his first impeachment trial. Trump ultimately was acquitted of allegations that he abused his power by withholding military aid from Ukraine to pressure government officials to help undermine his then political rival in the presidential contest, Mr Joe Biden.
As Florida’s attorney-general until 2019, Ms Bondi earned national attention for her efforts to overturn former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and provisions banning health insurance companies from charging more to customers with pre-existing conditions. Her decisions to co-host a Fox News television programme while still in office – and to ask then Florida Governor Rick Scott to postpone a scheduled execution because it conflicted with a fundraising event – also earned widespread media coverage.
Traditionally, the Justice Department and the attorney-general have maintained a distance from the White House, especially when it comes to making decisions about which sensitive investigations and prosecutions to conduct or end. Measures intended to insulate the department from politics and interference were put in place following the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
The department includes several agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the President-elect has criticised as well. Trump could move to fire FBI director Christopher Wray, whose term is not up until 2027.
Federal Indictments
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly said he plans to go after “the enemy from within” the US. He has also railed against federal indictments against him secured by Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election and illegally retaining classified documents.
Ms Bondi has publicly championed Trump’s claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
In an interview on Fox News in August 2023, she said: “The prosecutors will be prosecuted – the bad ones,” once Trump is president again. “The investigators will be investigated. Because the deep state during the last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows. But now they have a spotlight on them, and they can all be investigated. The house needs to be cleaned out.”
Since leaving her job as Florida attorney-general, Ms Bondi became a partner at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm that also employed incoming Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles. Earlier in 2024, she also started working for the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank that has been focused on helping the president-elect develop policies, staff his administration and draft executive orders for his second term.
Previously, Ms Bondi worked on an opioid and drug abuse commission in Trump’s first term, and the President-elect noted that work – and her prosecution of drug cases as a state attorney-general – in his statement announcing her pick.
Gaetz loss
Ms Bondi came under scrutiny over a US$25,000 (S$33,700) donation Trump’s now-closed foundation made to a political group in 2013 supporting her re-election bid. The donation was made after her office said it was reviewing if there was reason to join a New York lawsuit against Trump University for defrauding students. After the donation was made, her office announced it would not join. A state prosecutor cleared Ms Bondi and Trump of wrongdoing in 2017.
Trump initially picked Mr Gaetz as his attorney-general, but the former US representative from Florida said on Nov 21 that he would no longer seek the post. He came under intense scrutiny over a long-running House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct, including having sex with a minor.
The Justice Department also investigated Mr Gaetz for alleged sex trafficking of a minor but informed his lawyers last year that the probe was closed without charges. He has denied any wrongdoing.
“It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition,” he said on Nov 21. Bloomberg
