Trump’s AG pick Pam Bondi is more conventional than Gaetz, but the agenda to disrupt the Justice Department won’t change
By Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez, CNN
(CNN) — With his new pick for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump has found not only a powerhouse media strategist and loyal ally, but a tenacious litigator known for her battles in court for conservative causes.
And while little about Trump is conventional, Pam Bondi is a far more conventional selection to lead the US Justice Department than Matt Gaetz, who stepped aside after a week of nonstop scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans alike.
Bondi’s rise through the Florida state legal system and her fealty to Trump make her a key enforcer on his proposed policies around immigration, reproductive health and political retribution.
Inside the Justice Department, the Bondi announcement was met mostly with relief from employees who a week ago were dismayed by the prospect of Gaetz and his slew of ethics and legal issues.
But Justice employees are still steeling for heavy disruption, given that Trump’s stated plans are to bring the department to heel after being the subject of years of investigations he claims were unfair and politicized.
“None of the baggage,” one Justice Department lawyer said of Bondi, “but still the same orders.”
Some career employees speculate that with Gaetz out of the picture, familiar conservative lawyers who have served at the Justice Department in past Republican administrations will be willing to come back to help Trump’s new administration.
Those career employees hope Bondi and Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general, will be able to recruit more lawyers who know the department and understand the fine balance between independence and also carrying out the president’s policies.
At the same time, Bondi has not held back about DOJ as she advocated for Trump this campaign.
“The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones,” she said in a TV appearance in August 2023. “The investigators will be investigated. Because the deep state, last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows. But now they have a spotlight on them, and they can all be investigated.”
First woman Florida attorney general
Bondi prosecuted several high-profile cases during more than a decade as a state attorney, including that of former New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden, who was sentenced in 2006 to one year in prison for violating his probation by using cocaine.
She was elected in 2011 to her first political position – Florida attorney general – and was the first woman to hold that office.
One of Bondi’s top deputies in the state, prosecutor Nick Cox – who has known Bondi since they were in college Greek life at the University of South Florida – described her as “effusive” and “sweet,” but said that “if you crossed her in court or pissed her off, run for the door.”
Cox said he spoke to Bondi after her nomination was announced, and that she was “very excited.”
“She’s going to do everything she can, I’m sure, to remain loyal to what [Trump’s] desires are and what his needs are,” Cox said, adding he doesn’t believe Bondi would “cross the line” into bringing politically-based charges. “But when it comes to criminal prosecutions, we have nothing to worry about.”
Retired State Attorney Bruce Colton, who collaborated on cases with Bondi’s office at the time, recounted how Bondi would give her personal phone number so that local offices could reach out with any issues. “Knowing her as a trial attorney and the attorney general,” Colton told CNN, “I feel that she would be very qualified for this job.”
Dave Aronberg, a Palm Beach County state attorney who worked for Bondi when she was attorney general in Florida, told CNN that while Bondi will carry out Trump policies loyally, she is likely to treat Justice Department employees fairly.
“She will not intentionally violate the law to round up Trump’s enemies,” Aronberg says.
But Aronberg did say to expect Bondi to order more special counsel investigations, like what we saw with attorney John Durham, who investigated potential misconduct in the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.
“I know she will do controversial things like John Durham-like investigations, but we have been through that, and it will be OK,” Aronberg said.
And for Trump’s opponents, Aronberg said not to expect a better pick for attorney general.
“Pam Bondi is the best attorney general that Donald Trump is going to nominate,” Aronberg said. “We should pick our battles.”
Key figure in court fight against Obamacare
During her eight years as attorney general, Bondi unsuccessfully brought cases that aimed to undermine the Affordable Care Act and fought to keep Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Bondi was at the vanguard of the 2012 Supreme Court challenge to President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and, as attorney general, could now be positioned to work to undercut the Affordable Care Act again. Trump himself has given mixed signals on his health care agenda.
As Joan Biskupic reported at the time for Reuters, when other Republican state officials across the country were racing to be the first to test Obamacare at the high court, Bondi and other Florida state attorneys flew to Washington to screen powerhouse appellate lawyers to represent the state. Bondi borrowed a conference room at the Washington law firm where her brother was a partner to quickly interview leading candidates.
Florida narrowly lost their case at the Supreme Court in June 2012, when a 5-4 decision to uphold the ACA almost went the opposite way. Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote late in the private negotiations, giving the Obama administration the win.
Bondi also fought for years to keep a state ban on same-sex marriage, only abandoning her series of appeals aiming to uphold the Florida constitutional amendment after the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision ruled that same-sex couples can marry nationwide.
She also made central to her platform combatting so-called “pill mills,” which are facilities that prescribe pain medications without sufficient diagnosis or documentation to do so.
Political turmoil
While her cases often handled hot-button issues, Bondi herself landed in the headlines for her political maneuvers, as she grew increasingly partisan during her two terms in office.
She came under criticism in 2013 for persuading the governor at the time, Rick Scott, to postpone an execution in 2013 because it conflicted with a fund-raiser for her re-election campaign. She later apologized.
That same year, Trump’s foundation gave a $25,000 contribution to Bondi’s political action committee during her reelection bid – a donation that Democrats later alleged influenced Bondi to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University. (A Florida ethics panel cleared Bondi of wrongdoing in the matter).
Since leaving the Florida attorney general post in 2019, Bondi has worked Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with deep ties to Trump and his incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles.
There, Bondi represented the country of Qatar from 2019 to 2020, according to documents submitted to the federal government by the firm under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which say that she helped “provide guidance and assistance in matters related to combating human trafficking.”
She has also lobbied on behalf large corporations like Amazon, General Motors and Uber.
Trump impeachment lawyer
During the 2016 presidential election, Bondi became a top Florida surrogate for the Trump campaign and her support for the president-elect has not wavered.
When Trump was first impeached, Bondi joined the defense team for his trial in the Senate and baselessly accused then-private citizen Joe Biden of corrupt business dealings with his son Hunter.
She railed against the Bidens again at the Republican National Convention in 2020, and promoted unfounded theories about election fraud. For instance, she claimed that “fake ballots” were being counted in Pennsylvania after Trump lost his second bid for the White House, saying that “we do have evidence of cheating” and “we are not going anywhere until they declare we won Pennsylvania.”
She is now listed as the chair for the Center for Litigation at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, where she has helped lead its work against the so-called “weaponization” of the Justice Department. She has also repeatedly railed in the media about the DOJ’s focus on political cases – like the ones against Trump – instead of focusing on violent crime.
CNN’s Joan Biskupic contributed to this report.
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