Trump’s impeachment lawyer Pam Bondi confirmed as his Attorney-General to lead DOJ shake-up

WASHINGTON – Ms Pam Bondi was confirmed by the US Senate to lead US President Donald Trump’s Justice Department on the evening of Feb 4 in Washington, letting her take over a sprawling agency central to the administration’s efforts on antitrust, immigration and policing white-collar crime.

Ms Bondi, 59, who was approved by the Senate on a 54-46 vote, will become US Attorney-General as the department undergoes an overhaul in personnel and mission.

Those changes have been driven by

Mr Trump’s crackdown on immigration

and his complaints that the agency was weaponised in charging him with federal crimes.

As Ms Bondi awaited confirmation, interim department leaders forced out or reassigned multiple officials who worked on cases related to the

Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol

and other efforts, including prosecutors, and ousted several Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executives.

Ms Bondi will now get a chance to reshape the 115,000-person department, which investigates and prosecutes cases on everything from public corruption to narcotics, money laundering and fraud. 

In a sign of the importance the department will play in enacting Mr Trump’s agenda, one of the US President’s first executive orders was “to correct past misconduct by the federal government related to the weaponisation of law enforcement and the weaponisation of the intelligence community”.

A department spokesperson said in a statement that Ms Bondi supports the directive and “strong action to restore one tier of justice for all Americans”.

During her confirmation hearing in January, Ms Bondi pledged that all department officials will be held to an “equal, fair system of justice”.

She said her overriding objective “would be to return the Department of Justice (DOJ) to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously enforcing the law”.

The DOJ is also in charge of defending the administration’s policies in court. 

“Under my watch, the partisan weaponisation of the Department of Justice will end,” Ms Bondi said. “America must have one tier of justice for all.”

She has been a loyal Mr Trump ally for years, and at times has repeated his claims that the department’s investigations of his conduct have been laced with politics.

In 2020, Ms Bondi served on Mr Trump’s legal defence team during his first impeachment by the US House.

Mr 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 US president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and provisions banning health insurance companies from charging more to customers with pre-existing conditions.

After leaving her job as the Florida attorney-general, Ms Bondi became a partner at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm that had also employed the Trump White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Since Ms Bondi’s hearing, Mr Trump appointees leading the department on an acting basis have implemented significant policy changes.

Staff have been shifted to enact the administration’s aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and away from other types of cases.

Employees were also told they faced “adverse consequences” if they failed to report diversity and inclusion programmes.

Rapid changes

In the run-up to her confirmation, the Justice Department sought to distance Ms Bondi from the rapid changes by the new administration, while acknowledging she will play a key role in advancing Mr Trump’s conservative agenda.

“Like every nominee in any administration, Pam Bondi does not have a decision-making role at the department until she is confirmed and sworn-in as the attorney-general,” Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said in a statement prior to the confirmation vote. 

One of Ms Bondi’s first challenges will be handling tensions between the FBI and Justice Department leadership.

FBI Acting Director Brian Driscoll told the agency’s rank-and-file in a memo on Jan 31 that he had been told eight senior FBI executives were to be fired by specific dates if they did not retire first. 

The FBI was also asked to turn over a list of all current and former FBI staff who worked on investigations or prosecutions related to the Capitol riot.

Bloomberg News reported on Jan 4 that the FBI sent over information about agents and other employees who worked on cases.

FBI agents sued on Feb 4 to prevent the department from developing a list of bureau employees who investigated the Jan 6 Capitol attack that could be used to identify them publicly, saying it could make them a target for retaliation. 

Critics say the recent moves by the DOJ’s interim leaders risk losing institutional knowledge of career employees exiting the department and politicising the agency’s work. BLOOMBERG