CNN
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With his new nomination for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped a tenacious litigator known for fighting for conservative causes in court, as well as a strong media strategist and loyal ally. i got you.
And while there is little about Trump that is conventional, Pam Bondi is a better choice to lead the U.S. Department of Justice than Matt Gaetz, who resigned after a week of non-stop hounding from both Democrats and Republicans. He is a much more conventional figure.
Mr. Bondi has risen through Florida’s legal system and his loyalty to Mr. Trump has made him the chief enforcer of his proposed policies on immigration, reproductive health and political retaliation.
Inside the Justice Department, Bondi’s announcement was largely met with relief from staffers who had expressed disappointment a week earlier over Gaetz’s prospects and his many ethical and legal problems.
But judicial officials remain bracing for major disruption, given President Trump’s plans for the Justice Department, which has been the subject of a years-long investigation that they say is unfair and politicized. are.
“There was no baggage, but it’s still the same order,” a Justice Department lawyer said of Bondi.
Some career officials speculate that with Gaetz out, familiar conservative lawyers who served at the Justice Department under past Republican administrations will be willing to return to help the new Trump administration. .
These career employees say Bondi and Todd Blanche, President Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general, are adding lawyers who are familiar with the department and understand the delicate balance between independence and pursuing the president’s policies. I hope that it will be adopted.
At the same time, Mr. Bondi did not shy away from the Justice Department as he defended Mr. Trump during this campaign.
“The Justice Department, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, they are the bad guys,” she said in an August 2023 television appearance. Because during President Trump’s final term, the deep state remained in the shadows. But now the spotlight is on them and they are all being investigated. ”
In his more than 10 years as a state’s attorney, Bondi has handled several high-profile cases, including the case of former New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden, who was sentenced to one year in prison in 2006 for violating his probation for using cocaine. Indicted.
She was elected to her first political position, Florida Attorney General, in 2011, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
One of Bondi’s top lawmakers in the state, prosecutor Nick Cox, who has known him since he was a Greek student at the University of South Florida, described him as “fiery” and “kind.” “If I let her cross,” he said. In court or if you piss her off, run for the door. ”
Cox said he spoke with Bondi after her nomination was announced and she was “very excited.”
“I’m confident that she will do everything she can to stay true to (Trump’s) desires and needs,” Cox said, adding that Bondi poses a political problem. He added that he didn’t think he would “cross the line” for the sake of it. -Base charges. “But when it comes to criminal prosecution, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Bruce Colton, a former state’s attorney who was working with Bondi’s office on the case at the time, described how Bondi gave out his personal phone number so the district office could contact them if there were any problems. He spoke in detail. “I know her as a trial lawyer and as an attorney general, and I think she’s extremely qualified for this job,” Colton told CNN.
Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave Aronberg, who worked for Bondi when he was Florida’s attorney general, told CNN that Bondi will faithfully implement Trump policies while treating Justice Department employees fairly. He said that he has a high level of sexuality.
“She’s not going to intentionally break the law to round up Trump’s enemies,” Aaronberg said.
But Aaronberg expects Bondi to order more special counsel investigations, as we saw with attorney John Durham, who investigated potential wrongdoing in the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe. said.
“I know she’s going to do some controversial things, like investigating John Durham, but we’ve been through it and we’ll be fine,” Aaronberg said.
And Aronberg told President Trump’s opponents that he couldn’t have asked for a better choice for attorney general.
“Pam Bondi is the best attorney general that Donald Trump can nominate,” Aaronberg said. “We should choose our battles.”
During his eight years as attorney general, Mr. Bondi filed unsuccessful lawsuits aimed at violating the Affordable Care Act and fought to keep Florida’s same-sex marriage ban in place.
Bondi spearheaded the 2012 Supreme Court challenge to President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law, and will now serve as attorney general to work to overturn the Affordable Care Act again. There is a possibility that it will stand. Trump himself has given mixed signals about his health care policy.
As Joan Biskupic reported for Reuters at the time, as other Republican state officials across the country raced to be the first to test Obamacare in the high court, Bondi and other Florida prosecutors He flew to Washington to select leading appellate lawyers to represent him. . Bondi rented a conference room at the Washington law firm where her brother is a partner and quickly interviewed the leading candidates.
In June 2012, Florida narrowly lost its case in the Supreme Court, which nearly reversed its decision in favor of the ACA by a 5-4 vote. Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote late in closed-door negotiations, handing the Obama administration a victory.
Bondi also fought for years to keep state bans on same-sex marriage in place, before a landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling ruled that same-sex couples can marry nationwide. He later simply abandoned a series of appeals aimed at upholding Florida’s constitutional amendments.
She also became a central figure in a platform fighting against so-called “pill mills,” facilities that prescribe painkillers without adequate diagnosis or documentation.
While her cases often dealt with high-profile issues, Bondi herself made headlines for her political maneuvering as she became increasingly partisan during her two terms in office.
She came under fire in 2013 for persuading then-Gov. Rick Scott to postpone the execution, saying it conflicted with fundraising for her re-election campaign. She later apologized.
That same year, the Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to Bondi’s political action committee during Bondi’s re-election campaign, a donation that later influenced Bondi to drop the Trump University fraud investigation. The Democratic Party claimed that it had been given. (The Florida Ethics Commission cleared Bondi of wrongdoing in this matter).
Since leaving his post as Florida attorney general in 2019, Bondi has worked for Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with deep ties to Trump and his incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
Bondi served as a representative of the State of Qatar from 2019 to 2020 and was responsible for providing “guidance and assistance related to combating human trafficking,” according to documents filed by the office with the federal government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He is said to have contributed to the provision of
She has also lobbied on behalf of large corporations such as Amazon, General Motors, and Uber.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Bondi became the Trump campaign’s top surrogate in Florida, and his support for the president-elect remained unwavering.
When President Trump was first impeached, Bondi joined his defense team in the Senate trial, baselessly accusing then-private Joe Biden of corrupt business dealings with his son Hunter.
She again lambasted the Bidens at the 2020 Republican National Convention, promoting baseless theories about election fraud. For example, after Trump lost his second bid for the White House, he claimed that “fake votes” were being counted in Pennsylvania, saying, “There is certainly evidence of fraud,” and “I won in Pennsylvania. We’re not going anywhere until they say so.” ”
She is currently the director of the pro-Trump America First Institute’s Litigation Center and has led the institute’s efforts to oppose the so-called “weaponization” of the Justice Department. She has also repeatedly accused the Justice Department in the media of focusing on political cases, like the case against Trump, rather than focusing on violent crimes.
CNN’s Joan Biskupic contributed to this report.
