President-elect Donald Trump tapped Pam Bondi, the previous lawyer common of Florida, as his new alternative to steer the Justice Division on Thursday. The choice got here simply hours after former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R), a fellow Floridian, withdrew his title from consideration amid a rising scandal over an ethics investigation into claims of sexual misconduct and drug use.
Listed below are 5 issues to learn about Bondi, an in depth ally of the Trump household:
Bondi was Florida’s first feminine lawyer common.
Bondi turned Florida’s first feminine lawyer common in 2010 after she was endorsed by then-Republican celebrity Sarah Palin. Not like Gaetz, she had an extended profession as a prosecutor earlier than she took on the state’s prime regulation enforcement position. She spent 18 years on the Hillsborough County State Legal professional’s Workplace.
Throughout her tenure at Florida’s lawyer common, she waged failed makes an attempt to overturn the Inexpensive Care Act and tried to maintain Florida’s ban on homosexual marriage in place whereas pledging she was a pal to the LGBTQ neighborhood.
She additionally sparked huge criticism after her workplace delayed an execution so she may attend a fundraiser for herself. She later apologized.
She served from 2011 to 2019.
Picture by Loren Elliott/Tampa Bay Occasions/Getty Photos
She declined to affix an investigation into Trump College.
Bondi drew fierce criticism after it was revealed she requested Trump for a political contribution in 2013, across the identical time the Florida lawyer common’s workplace was contemplating becoming a member of an investigation on allegations of fraud at Trump College.
Trump wrote a $25,000 examine to a political committee supporting Bondi days later, however the cash got here from a household basis in violation of federal legal guidelines. Each Bondi and Trump denied the fee was a quid professional quo after particulars of the donation have been made public in 2016.
Bondi by no means joined the investigation into Trump College, which was shuttered after an enormous fraud probe. He later paid $25 million to settle three lawsuits associated to the enterprise.
She was a lobbyist for Qatar and different purchasers within the U.S.
Bondi labored as a lobbyist for the agency Ballard Companions, the identical enterprise in Florida the place Trump’s newly-minted chief of employees, Susie Wiles, was a associate. She joined in 2019 after ending her second time period as Florida’s lawyer common.
Picture by MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Photos
Bondi’s purchasers included U.S. corporations like Basic Motors, Uber and Amazon. However she additionally labored for the Qatari authorities and a Kuwaiti agency. Her work for Qatar included anti-human-trafficking efforts within the lead as much as the World Cup held within the nation in 2022, per The Related Press.
She defended Kyle Rittenhouse as a “little boy” who wished to guard his neighborhood.
Bondi shortly jumped to the protection of then-teenager Kyle Rittenhouse after he shot and killed two individuals and injured one other at a racial justice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020.
“Individuals have to know on the market, that was a warfare zone. You’ve got a 17-year-old on the market attempting to guard his state,” Bondi informed Fox Information host Sean Hannity in Sept. 2020, shortly after Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional murder and first-degree reckless murder.
“There have been bullets flying all over the place. Different individuals have been firing, This child was attempting to assist individuals. Had been there individuals killed? Completely. You’ve acquired a bit of boy on the market attempting to guard his neighborhood.”
She went on to say Rittenhouse shouldn’t have been there with a gun, however she believed on the time it was too early to cost him with any crimes. He was later acquitted on all expenses in 2021.
She’s a fierce ally of Donald Trump and helped push his claims of election fraud in 2020. She additionally defended him throughout his first impeachment trial.
Bondi has lengthy been a fierce ally of the previous president after endorsing him in 2016 throughout his first bid for the White Home, over fellow Floridian Sen. Marco Rubio (R).
In 2020 she was a part of Trump’s protection crew throughout his first impeachment trial, the place he was accused of pressuring the president of Ukraine to dig up filth on his Democratic rivals. Trump was impeached by the Home however later acquitted by the Senate.
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Later in 2020, as Trump was pushing rampant lies about electoral fraud following his loss to Joe Biden, Bondi informed a Fox Information host that there have been “pretend ballots” coming into voting facilities that have been shining the election in Biden’s favor.
When the host requested her to offer proof, she couldn’t.
Bondi has since served because the chairwoman of the pro-Trump suppose tank the America First Coverage Institute and railed towards the swath of investigations into his acts throughout his first time period and into his enterprise practices.