Trump picks former prosecutor Pam Bondi for attorney general

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Pam Bondi to be his next attorney general, in a social media post Thursday that touted the former Florida attorney general’s history as a prosecutor who “was very tough on Violent Criminals.”

Bondi, if confirmed, would oversee a sprawling Department of Justice responsible for federal criminal prosecution and a wide array of law enforcement. In the role, she could advocate for certain funding priorities, implement internal changes, and shift policy on topics like immigration, voting rights and antitrust enforcement.

“As Florida’s first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths, which have destroyed many families across our Country,” Trump said in the post. “She did such an incredible job, that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during my first Term — We saved many lives!”

Trump also said he’s known Bondi for years and described her as “smart” and an “AMERICA FIRST Fighter.”

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

Bondi would likely be tasked with implementing Trump’s plans to remake an agency he fumed at during the campaign trail.

Trump’s announcement on Thursday came hours after his previous pick for attorney general, former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration. Bondi is a more traditional pick for attorney general than Gaetz, whose push for attorney general was dogged by sexual misconduct allegations and the specter of an unreleased ethics report.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised the selection on social media.

“Well done, Mr. President. Picking Pam Bondi for Attorney General is a grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick,” Graham posted. “She will be confirmed quickly because she deserves to be confirmed quickly.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee, offered Bondi congratulations on social media. “I look forward to supporting her nomination in the Senate,” Lee said.

Bondi, a Florida native, was the first woman to serve as the state’s chief legal officer and held the role from 2011 to 2019, according to her biography on Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm.

That bio said Bondi “was one of Florida’s most accomplished Attorneys General” and she “earned a reputation among her colleagues as one of the toughest law enforcement officials in the country.”

It said her work included fighting opioid abuse and cracking down on “pill mills,” combating human trafficking and taking on Medicare fraud, among other topics.

In Jan. 2020, Bondi served on Trump’s defense team on his first impeachment, on an alleged scheme to hold up military aid to Ukraine until Kyiv agreed to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The Senate the next month acquitted Trump on two articles of impeachment.

Bondi has been in Trump’s circle for years. In 2016, Bondi endorsed then-reality TV veteran Trump for president ahead of her state’s primary. “Donald and I have been friends for many years,” she said at a rally in Tampa, where he called her “the most popular person in Florida, by far.”

On the national stage, she’s fought for a law banning same-sex marriage and against a ballot initiative that would have legalized medical marijuana. She also spearheaded the lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and joined other attorneys general in fighting against Obama administration efforts on energy and environment mandates, and immigration.