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. 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 agency told a newspaper it was reviewing action New York had taken 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 into 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.

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, which previous attorneys general had used to bolster their credentials, by weighing in on the side of consumers in battles against utilities and other companies. 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 came under scrutiny for a $25,000 donation 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.

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.”

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