Trump picks a different Florida loyalist for attorney general: Pam Bondi

Donald Trump said he will nominate former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his attorney general, hours after his first pick for the role, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration for the position.

In selecting Bondi, Trump again chose a staunch loyalist who is seen as an overtly political operator. She defended Trump during his first impeachment in 2019 and appeared with him on the trail in the final days of the 2024 campaign. She is co-chair of the law and justice division at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, which has been likened to a Trump administration in waiting.

And in 2013, while Bondi was serving as Florida attorney general, Trump donated $25,000 to a political action committee supporting her reelection. The timing was later scrutinized because Bondi’s spokesperson had told a newspaper just days before the donation that Bondi’s office was reviewing a class action lawsuit New York had brought against Trump University for fraud.

The attorney general post is perhaps the most important Cabinet position in Trump’s second term. He was sometimes frustrated by the two men who served in the role in his first term, and he’s expected to lean on Bondi to help him wield the Justice Department against his political enemies.

If confirmed, Bondi will also be tasked with defending some of Trump’s most controversial policies, particularly on immigration, and will be expected to help end the two federal cases against Trump unless special counsel Jack Smith winds them down before Trump takes office.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans,” Trump said in a social media post announcing the pick. “Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Gaetz, whose initial selection for the position was marred by the specter of a looming House Ethics report on him, praised Trump’s pick. “She will bring the needed reforms to DOJ,” he wrote in a post on X.

Though Bondi may prove another polarizing pick, she is likely to be at least somewhat less controversial than Gaetz, who had few qualifications for the job and whose primary experience with the Justice Department came when it investigated whether he engaged in child sex trafficking. He denied the allegations and was never charged. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of the president-elect, predicted that Bondi “will be confirmed quickly because she deserves to be confirmed quickly.”

Trump chose Bondi because he believed she would be easily confirmed and she has proven her loyalty to him during their long-standing relationship, said a person close to both of them who was granted anonymity to discuss the rationale behind the selection.

“He wants to be able to pick up the phone and deal with his Cabinet the same way someone running a company would want to be able to with an advisory board,” the person said.

Liberal groups blasted the pick. “Not being Matt Gaetz does not qualify you to be attorney general of the United States,” Robert Weissman, the co-president of the liberal government watchdog Public Citizen, said in a statement. “We should expect an Attorney General Bondi to serve as a Trump loyalist and attack dog at the expense of the Department’s independence and integrity.” Like many who jockeyed for jobs in a second Trump administration, Bondi attended Trump’s criminal trial in New York and took to TV to criticize the proceedings, particularly the gag order the judge overseeing the trial imposed on Trump.

Bondi, 59, served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019. She was first elected to the position as part of the same tea party wave that brought then-Gov. Rick Scott into office. She had worked for the top prosecutor in the Tampa area and was the lead prosecutor in a case against guards accused of killing Martin Lee Anderson, a teenager who was in a juvenile boot camp.

Bondi transformed the job in one key way by ending the practice of having the attorney general weigh in on the side of consumers in battles against utilities. Instead, Bondi focused on criminal cases and human trafficking. She came under fire early on in her tenure after firing two employees in her office who were responsible for investigating mortgage fraud.

Bondi initiated Florida’s litigation against opioid manufacturers that was eventually settled after she left office. She also launched a probe of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the state following revelations in Pennsylvania.

In 2016, Bondi was criticized after revelations that she requested the $25,000 donation that Trump made through one of his charities in 2013 to a political action committee raising money for her reelection. The contribution came as Bondi’s office was weighing whether to take action in response to complaints against Trump University. Bondi’s office never pursued any investigation and did not join the class action lawsuit led by New York. While the donation was reported at the time, the issue flared back up after Bondi acknowledged that she had personally asked Trump for the contribution.

Bondi also defended Florida’s ban against same-sex marriage and in one court filing from her office told a federal court that recognizing marriages in other states would disrupt Florida’s existing law and would “impose significant public harm.”

Some social conservatives, including Ralph Reed, a Trump ally who leads the conservative-leaning Faith & Freedom organization, defended the choice on Thursday evening.

“Pam is a thorough professional, a seasoned and capable prosecutor, and a woman of enormous integrity who has Trump’s respect and confidence,” he said. “She is uniquely qualified to restore the rule of law and put the blindfold back on Lady Justice and the Department of Justice.”

Bondi left office due to term limits and went to work for Brian Ballard, a lobbyist with deep ties to Trump. She briefly left that job to help with Trump’s defense against impeachment charges leveled against him in 2019.

She would be the first Republican woman to serve as attorney general if confirmed.

Meridith McGraw and Kimberly Leonard contributed to this report.