Trump Picks Pam Bondi, Florida’s Former Top Prosecutor, for Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws

 

Trump Picks Pam Bondi, Florida’s Former Top Prosecutor, for Attorney General After Gaetz Withdraws

 

In Ms. Bondi, who served on his legal team during his first impeachment, the president-elect turned to a loyal ally to put his stamp on a Justice Department that he sees as hostile to him.

 

By Devlin BarrettMaggie HabermanEric Lipton and Kenneth P. Vogel

Nov. 21, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/us/politics/pam-bondi-attorney-general-trump.html

 

President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that he would nominate Pam Bondi to be attorney general, turning to a longtime loyalist who served as state attorney general in Florida to put his stamp on a Justice Department that he sees as politically hostile to him.

 

Mr. Trump announced her selection hours after his first choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration amid a growing consensus that he could not be confirmed by the Senate because of allegations that he had taken part in drug-fueled sex parties.

 

Mr. Trump has been keen to install a close ally to head the Justice Department, which he has vowed to purge of what he calls “deep state” foes — suggesting an end to a longstanding practice of Justice Department criminal investigations operating independent of White House direction or interference.

 

Ms. Bondi, 59, served on Mr. Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment and currently leads the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank that has kept close ties to Mr. Trump’s transition team. Ms. Bondi oversaw the filing of voting-related lawsuits in battleground states.

 

Toward the end of Mr. Trump’s campaign, she also began to appear more frequently as a surrogate at his rallies, particularly as he tried to showcase his support with women.

 

“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post announcing his selection. “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!”

 

Ms. Bondi’s appointment came together quickly after Mr. Gaetz bowed out, according to a person briefed on Mr. Trump’s deliberations. Ms. Bondi met with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate and private club, on Thursday, and he announced her as the nominee shortly afterward.

 

Ms. Bondi has long been a favorite of Mr. Trump’s, although it was unclear whether her name had been on a vetting list before. She was not on a list of names compiled by some of Mr. Trump’s advisers with input from his top legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who had pushed for Mr. Gaetz to get the job.

 

Ms. Bondi is close to the incoming White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who has extensive ties in Florida politics.

 

Mr. Gaetz is also a fierce and vocal defender of Mr. Trump. But as details of investigations into his alleged transgressions continued to dribble out, Senate Republicans signaled that there was little chance they could muster the votes to confirm him, even as Mr. Gaetz continued to deny wrongdoing.

 

Signaling his desire to have a pipeline directly into the Justice Department, Mr. Trump had already announced that he would nominate three members of his criminal defense team to top roles in the Justice Department.

 

Like Mr. Gaetz, Ms. Bondi was an outspoken critic of the prosecution of Mr. Trump. She traveled to New York this year to attend his trial in Manhattan criminal court on charges related to hush money payments to a porn star. Ms. Bondi publicly criticized prosecutors for bringing the case, and the judge for his handling of the trial.

 

After stepping down as Florida’s attorney general in 2019, Ms. Bondi went to work as a lobbyist for Ballard Partners, the Florida-based lobbying firm run by Brian Ballard, a close associate and fund-raiser for Mr. Trump. Her past lobbying clients included General Motors, Amazon and Uber.

 

During Mr. Trump’s first campaign for president, she faced questions about a $25,000 donation years earlier from Mr. Trump. She denied that the donation played any role in her office’s decision not to pursue an investigation into Trump University.

 

The 2013 donation, to a political action committee supporting her re-election as state attorney general, came when her office was considering joining a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general against Trump University. Her office ultimately decided not to join that lawsuit, and said there was nothing improper about either the donation or the decision.

 

“If you look at all the possible alternatives, this is a sober pick,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State College of Law professor. “We don’t know what will come to fruition, but unlike Gaetz she does not seem hellbent on turning the department into a political weapon.”

 

But she remains a divisive figure after high-profile roles in numerous legal and cultural disputes.

 

Ms. Bondi, who became the Florida attorney general in 2011, became the public face of opposition to same-sex marriage in Florida, defending a statewide ban that voters had passed in 2008. She said she was obligated to defend it because it was in the state Constitution. After a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, Ms. Bondi adopted a more conciliatory tone toward the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

 

As Florida’s first female attorney general, Ms. Bondi focused on combating drug abuse and child trafficking. But she also embraced partisan legal fights, including trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act. She also opposed the legalization of medical marijuana.

 

“She does not have the obvious character flaws of Gaetz,” said Fred Guttenberg, who clashed with Ms. Bondi over gun control measures after his 14-year-old daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. “However, she is just as dangerous — maybe more so — because she will always put Trump ahead of the needs of the country.”

 

Ms. Bondi grew up in the Tampa, Fla., suburbs. As a young prosecutor with the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office, she frequently appeared on local television before she ran for state attorney general as a Republican in 2010. Once in the State Capitol in Tallahassee, she became a fixture on cable news.

 

While serving as Florida’s attorney general, Ms. Bondi was active in the Republican Attorneys General Association, taking trips around the United States to resort hotel destinations for gatherings sponsored by lobbyists trying to influence the chief state law enforcement officials.

 

Ms. Bondi received nearly $25,000 worth of airfare, hotels and meals over a two-year period from events sponsored by the Republican Attorneys General Association, state disclosure reports showed. That money came indirectly from corporate donors. Ms. Bondi also collected at least $650,000 in donations from the Republican group as she was running her attorney general re-election campaign.

 

Around the same time, Ms. Bondi’s office was approached by lobbyists and lawyers who were major sponsors of the group and were then representing Accretive Health, a Chicago-based hospital bill collection company, which had been accused of abusive bill collection practices.

 

The lobbyist successfully urged Ms. Bondi’s office not to take up the matter, The New York Times first reported in 2014.

 

Ms. Bondi, during Mr. Trump’s first term, also helped advise Mr. Trump on pardons he made toward the end of his tenure, such as the commutation of a 35-year prison sentence given to a Florida woman convicted in 2011 of helping engineer a more than $200 million Medicare fraud operation. The move angered federal prosecutors in Florida who had spent years investigating the case and securing a conviction.

 

While working more recently for Ballard Partners, her firm helped General Motors lobby the White House on labor issues and tax policy; Amazon as it lobbied the federal government on cloud computing issues and U.S. trade practices; and Uber, representing the company on issues related to “the sharing economy,” federal filings from 2020 show.

 

Through this year, she has served as a lobbyist for Florida sheriffs and an organization representing county sheriffs nationwide. A person familiar with the firm confirmed that Ms. Bondi was still affiliated with it and those clients as of Thursday.

 

Michael Gold, Patricia Mazzei and Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

 

Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman

 

Eric Lipton is an investigative reporter, who digs into a broad range of topics from Pentagon spending to toxic chemicals. More about Eric Lipton

 

Kenneth P. Vogel is based in Washington and investigates the intersection of money, politics and influence. More about Kenneth P. Vogel