President-elect Donald Trump has withdrawn from contention to be the next attorney general after his first choice, former congressman Matt Gaetz, another loyalist, after days of controversy.
President Trump announced Thursday that he has nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be the next federal prosecutor.
“For too long, the Justice Department has used its weapons against me and other Republicans. Not anymore. Pam will refocus DOJ on its intended purpose: fighting crime and making America safe again,” he said in a social media post.
He appointed Gaetz after his nomination drew criticism from lawmakers from both major U.S. political parties.
The Florida Republican has been the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged misconduct, including allegations that he had sex with an underage 17-year-old girl. He denied wrongdoing.
Bondi’s nomination, which must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, has sparked controversy with observers pointing to past controversies, including a 2013 donation by the Trump Foundation to a political action committee supporting her.
Here’s what you need to know about the candidates.
Who is Pam Bondi?
Bondi, 59, made history in 2010 when she was elected Florida’s first female attorney general, serving from 2011 to 2019.
The Tampa native worked as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County State’s Attorney’s Office for more than 18 years, but was relatively unknown in national politics when she served as the state’s top prosecutor.
While Bondi was Florida’s attorney general, he highlighted the issue of human trafficking and called for strengthening state laws against human traffickers.
Her resume contrasts with that of Gaetz, who has little of the traditional experience expected of an attorney general. He is a position that holds enormous decision-making authority over which cases to pursue and how to direct federal law enforcement.
FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; And the U.S. Marshals Service all answer to the Attorney General. The attorney general also oversees local federal prosecutors, known as U.S. attorneys, throughout the United States.
“She certainly deserves the position on paper,” David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida who now works as a defense attorney, told Reuters.
“She dedicated her life to prosecuting cases. “She has a better resume than the last candidate.”
What is her relationship with Trump?
Bondi has been in Trump’s orbit for years and was one of his early supporters, supporting the former president during his successful 2016 White House campaign.
She gained national attention when she appeared on Fox News as Trump’s defender, and had a notable speaking engagement at the 2016 Republican National Convention, where he won the party’s nomination.
During her remarks, some in the crowd began chanting, “Lock her up,” in reference to Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. “‘Lock her up,’” Bondi said. “I really like it,” he replied.
After Trump was elected, she served on his transition team and then became a member of the Opioid and Substance Abuse Committee in his first administration.
She was also a member of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial. Trump has been accused of pressuring his rival, now-President Joe Biden, to conduct a corruption investigation by withholding military aid to Ukraine.
Trump was acquitted by the U.S. Senate.
What caused the donation controversy?
Bondi personally solicited Trump for political donations in 2013 while his office weighed whether to join New York in a lawsuit over alleged fraud involving Trump University, a for-profit education company.
The Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to a political action committee supporting her, potentially violating a federal ban on charities supporting political candidates.
When the donation made headlines in 2016, Bondi denied that the $25,000 he received from Trump had anything to do with his decision not to take action against Trump University, saying his office had released all relevant documents.
The Trump campaign attributed its failure to properly disclose donations to “a series of unfortunate coincidences and errors.”
Trump’s namesake charitable foundation agreed to dissolve in 2018 under court supervision after a lawsuit from New York’s attorney general accusing Trump of abusing the foundation to advance his 2016 presidential campaign and businesses. The foundation was also ordered to pay a $2 million fine.
After Bondi’s nomination was announced Thursday, the watchdog group Citizens for Accountability and Ethics in Washington called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to “fully investigate the Trump-Bondi scandal.”
What else should you know about Bondi?
Most recently, Bondi served as chair of the Litigation Center at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded by former Trump administration staff to lay the groundwork for them if they win re-election.
She has been a vocal critic of the criminal case against the former president and of special prosecutor Jack Smith, who charged Trump with mishandling classified documents and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Bondi was among a group of lawyers who drafted an opinion arguing that Smith was illegally appointed to represent Trump in the classified documents case.
In a radio appearance, she also criticized Smith and other prosecutors who prosecuted Trump as “horrible” people. She accused him of trying to gain fame for himself by “going after Donald Trump and weaponizing our legal system.”
In 2020, she also spread the “big lie” that Trump and his associates had stolen the election from him. “We won Pennsylvania and we want every vote to be counted in a fair way,” Bondi said at the time.
