If not Matt Gaetz, who will Donald Trump pick to run the Justice Department as attorney general? On November 21, the president-elect nominated Pam Bondi. But who is she? For one, she is not the subject of a sex trafficking investigation, unlike Trump’s previous pick, Gaetz, who withdrew his name from consideration after meeting with Republican Senators.
Read moreThe Trump Cabinet Could Include Multiple Alleged Sexual Predators
Sexual misconduct allegations haven’t disqualified Trump from the presidency, and that privilege apparently extends to some of those he wants to surround him.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,” Trump said of his new nominee on social media. “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!”
So, what’s the deal with 59-year-old Republican lawyer Pam Bondi? Here’s everything we know.
Bondi was Florida’s first female Attorney General.
Bondi served as the AG of Florida from 2011 to 2019, largely focussing her efforts on the opioid crisis. Along with fellow lawmakers, she enacted the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, “an initiative to encourage safer prescribing of controlled substances and to reduce drug abuse and diversion within the state of Florida.”
Bondi staunchly opposed gay marriage.
In 2014, Bondi worked to freeze appeals by same-sex couples suing the state over Florida’s gay marriage ban, arguing that “disrupting Florida’s existing marriage laws would impose significant public harm.”
After promising to protect the LGBTQ community following the tragic mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub in 2016, she was confronted about her previous statements by Anderson Cooper. “I have never seen you talk about gays and lesbians and transgender people in a positive way until now,” he said at the time.
Throughout the viral confrontation, Bondi argued she was just “defending the constitution,” adding, “I’ve never said I don’t like gay people. That’s ridiculous.”
She has strong ties to Trump.
Not only did Bondi serve as one of Trump’s lawyers during his first impeachment trial, she served on his Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during his first term. She’s also a chair at the America First Policy Institute, which was founded in 2021 to promote Trump’s policy agenda after he left office, per Axios.
She’s been at the center of a Trump-related controversy.
Per Politico, Bondi’s reelection campaign received a $25,000 donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation in 2013, at the same time her office was receiving complaints from Floridians who claimed they had been scammed by Trump University. She then declined to pursue a fraud investigation on behalf of the state of Florida into the now-defunct school. Trump later paid a $2,500 fine for the “improper” donation. According to The Independent, both Trump and Bondi have denied that the donation was improper.
Eventually, in November 2016, Trump paid $25 million to settle three lawsuits against Trump University, one of which was brought forth by New York state’s AG. NPR reported at the time of the settlement that the deal included “payouts to more than 6,000 Trump U students who paid thousands of dollars for courses they describe as worthless.”
She was at the center of a strange dog-custody battle involving victims of Hurricane Katrina.
In 2005, Bondi fostered and then adopted a St. Bernard who was rescued during Hurricane Katrina. When his original owners, Steven and Doreen Couture, came looking for him, she refused to give him up, claiming that he had been abused under their care. The Coutures denied the allegation, and enlisted legal services to assist them in getting their two dogs—both of whom had been adopted out—back in their custody.
According to local news reports, the Coutures left their dogs at a “makeshift animal shelter” after their home was destroyed by Katrina. During the storm, Steven had stayed with them, “but with about 7 feet of water in his house, he ended up on the roof of his home. When a boat arrived to rescue him, he was told he had to leave [the dogs],” the Ocala Star Banner reported. When he returned home after the storm, he found both dogs but was told he could not leave the area with them. Instead, he gave them up to the local animal shelter. “They told me they would hold them for at least six months, until I get a place,” he told the Banner. “That was the assurance they gave to me.”
Bondi later returned the dog to the Coutures.
She has criticized criminal cases against Trump, and the prosecutors behind them.
Bondi, who has been described as a “loyalist” to the president-elect, has publicly criticized the criminal cases against him, per the BBC.
She has called prosecutors in the federal cases against Trump “horrible” people who were “weaponizing our legal system” in order to further their careers. When Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in his criminal trial earlier this year, she told Fox News, “It’s a sad day for our justice system.”
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