NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, was chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after his first choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration after a federal sex trafficking investigation and ethics probe made his ability to be confirmed dubious.
Bondi, 59, has long been in Trump’s orbit and her name had been floated during his first term as a potential candidate for the nation’s highest law enforcement role.
If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, Bondi would become one of the most closely watched members of Trump’s Cabinet given the president-elect’s threat to pursue retribution against perceived adversaries and concern among Democrats that he will look to bend the Justice Department to his will.
Here are a few things to know about Bondi:
She was Florida’s first female attorney general
Bondi made history in 2010 when she was elected as Florida’s first female attorney general after spending more than 18 years as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County state attorney’s office.
The Tampa native campaigned on a message to use the state’s top legal office to challenge then-President Obama’s signature healthcare law. She also called for her state to adopt Arizona’s “show me your papers” immigration law that sparked national debate.
As Florida’s top prosecutor, Bondi stressed human trafficking issues and urged tightening state laws against traffickers. She held the job from 2011 to 2019.
A fixture in Trump’s world
Bondi has been a longtime and early Trump ally. In March 2016, on the eve of the Republican primary in Florida, Bondi endorsed the businessman and then-reality TV star at a rally, picking him over Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
She gained national attention with appearances on Fox News as a defender of Trump and had a notable speaking spot at the 2016 Republican National Convention. During the remarks, some in the crowd began chanting “Lock her up” about Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Bondi responded by saying, “‘Lock her up,’ I love that.”
Bondi served on Trump’s first transition team. When Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was ousted in 2018, Bondi’s name was floated as a possible candidate for the job. Trump at the time said he would “love” Bondi to join the administration, but he selected William Barr instead.
Bondi served on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. He had been impeached by the House on abuse of power charges over allegations that he pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden’s family. He pushed for the investigation while holding up nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine. Trump was also charged with obstructing investigative efforts. He was acquitted by the Senate, though one fellow Republican voted to convict him on one count.
Bondi was brought on during the Senate trial to bolster the White House’s messaging and communications.
She kept a toehold in Trump’s orbit after he left office. She served as a chairwoman of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers to lay the groundwork if he won a second term.
She’s had her own political issues
Bondi issued a public apology in 2013 while serving as Florida’s attorney general after she sought to delay the execution of a convicted killer because it conflicted with a fundraiser for her reelection campaign.
The attorney general, representing the state in death row appeals, typically remains available on the date of execution cases in case of any last-minute legal issues.
Bondi later said she was sorry for requesting that then-Gov. Rick Scott push back the execution of Marshall Lee Gore by three weeks.
Bondi personally solicited a 2013 political contribution from Trump as her office was weighing whether to join New York in suing over fraud allegations involving Trump University.
Trump cut a $25,000 check to a political committee supporting Bondi from his family’s charitable foundation, in violation of legal prohibitions against charities supporting partisan political activities. After the check came in, Bondi’s office decided against suing Trump’s company for fraud, citing insufficient grounds to proceed. Both Trump and Bondi denied wrongdoing.
Two days before being sworn in as president in January 2017, Trump paid $25 million to settle three lawsuits alleging Trump University defrauded its students.
Trump also paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS over the illegal political donation to support Bondi from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which he was forced to dissolve amid an investigation by the state of New York.
A Florida prosecutor assigned by then-GOP Gov. Scott later determined there was insufficient evidence to support bribery charges against Trump and Bondi over the $25,000 donation.
She’s been critical of the criminal cases against Trump
Bondi has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases against Trump as well as Jack Smith, the special counsel who charged Trump in two felony federal indictments. In one radio appearance, she denounced Smith and other prosecutors who have charged Trump as “horrible” people who she said were trying to make names for themselves by “going after Donald Trump and weaponizing our legal system.”
It’s unlikely that Bondi would be confirmed in time to overlap with Smith, who brought two federal indictments against Trump that are both expected to wind down before the president-elect takes office. Special counsels are expected to produce reports on their work that historically are made public, but it remains unclear when such a document might be released.
Bondi was also among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts.
As president, Trump demanded investigations into political opponents such as Hillary Clinton and sought to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to advance his own interests, including in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Bondi appears likely to oblige him.
She would inherit a Justice Department expected to pivot sharply on civil rights, corporate enforcement and the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — defendants whom Trump has pledged to pardon.
She worked as a lobbyist for U.S. and foreign clients
Bondi worked as a lobbyist for Ballard Partners, the powerful Florida-based firm where Trump’s campaign head and incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was a partner. Her U.S. clients have included General Motors, the commissioner of Major League Baseball and a Christian anti-human-trafficking advocacy group.
She also lobbied for a Kuwaiti firm, according to Justice Department foreign agent filings and congressional lobbying documents, and registered as a foreign agent for the government of Qatar; her work was related to anti-human-trafficking efforts leading up to the World Cup, held in 2022.
Bondi also represented the KGL Investment Co. KSCC, a Kuwaiti firm also known as KGLI, lobbying the White House, National Security Council, State Department and Congress on immigration policy, human rights and economic sanctions issues.
Price and Long write for the Associated Press. Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker contributed to this report.
