President-elect Donald Trump tapped Pam Bondi, the previous legal professional normal 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 here are 5 issues to find out about Bondi, a detailed ally of the Trump household:
Bondi was Florida’s first feminine legal professional normal.
Bondi grew to become Florida’s first feminine legal professional normal in 2010 after she was endorsed by then-Republican famous person Sarah Palin. In contrast to Gaetz, she had a protracted profession as a prosecutor earlier than she took on the state’s high regulation enforcement position. She spent 18 years on the Hillsborough County State Legal professional’s Workplace.
Throughout her tenure at Florida’s legal professional normal, 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 group.
She additionally sparked huge criticism after her workplace delayed an execution so she might attend a fundraiser for herself. She later apologized.
She served from 2011 to 2019.
Photograph by Loren Elliott/Tampa Bay Instances/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 legal professional normal’s workplace was contemplating becoming a member of an investigation on allegations of fraud at Trump College.
Trump wrote a $25,000 verify 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 cost 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 legal professional normal.
Photograph by MANDEL NGAN/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Bondi’s purchasers included U.S. firms like Common 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 group.
Bondi rapidly 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.
“People have to understand out there, that was a war zone. You have got a 17-year-old out there trying to protect his state,” Bondi advised Fox Information host Sean Hannity in Sept. 2020, shortly after Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional murder and first-degree reckless murder.
“There were bullets flying everywhere. Other people were firing, This kid was trying to help people. Were there people killed? Absolutely. You’ve got a little boy out there trying to protect his community.”
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 advised a Fox Information host that there have been “fake ballots” coming into voting facilities that have been shining the election in Biden’s favor.
When the host requested her to supply proof, she couldn’t.
Bondi has since served because the chairwoman of the pro-Trump assume tank the America First Coverage Institute and railed in opposition to the swath of investigations into his acts throughout his first time period and into his enterprise practices.
