Who is Pam Bondi, Trump’s replacement for AG?

Washington – President-elect Donald Trump’s new choice for US Attorney General is quite different from his previous choice.

Trump’s latest choice, Pam Bondi, 59, brings with her the same reputation as a Trump loyalist as former nominee Matt Gaetz.

But Bondi lacks Gaetz’s personal controversies — a former Florida congressman had to Faced with opposition, Senate Republicans retreated.She also brings significant comparable experience from her eight years as State Attorney General of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

As a result, he is expected to have a much easier path to confirmation.

The telegenic lawyer served on Trump’s defense team in his first Senate impeachment trial in 2020 to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Biden family — memorably arguing that the Biden family was indeed corrupt and warranted the investigation. was needed.

Most recently, Bondy has worked for the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank trying to develop new policies that could be implemented in a Trump second term.

If confirmed, Bondi is expected to be a leading face of efforts to rein in what Trump, 78, calls the weaponization of the federal government against him — including filing federal criminal charges against him for challenging the 2020 results. Also includes a move to dismiss a pair of cases. Elections and alleged misuse of classified documents.

He is also likely to be drawn into litigation challenging his efforts to mass deport illegal immigrants, while overseeing efforts to overhaul the FBI, which is part of the Justice Department, and Democratic Leading jurisdictions to take a tougher approach to violent crime.

Another pick from Florida

Trump announced Bondi’s selection on Thursday shortly after Gaetz dropped out, as Senate Republicans also demanded to see a draft of the House Ethics Committee report detailing sexual misconduct allegations against the former representative. Gaetz has denied the allegations.

She joins other prominent Floridians in the lineup for Trump’s return to power, including incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wills, Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor-designate Mike Waltz.

Bondy was elected Attorney General of Florida in 2010 and reelected in 2014 after serving as a prosecutor in Tampa.

Trump highlighted his focus on violent crime and the opioid epidemic in his announcement as his US AG pick.

“Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on violent criminals and made the streets safer for Florida families,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Then, as Florida’s first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs and reduce the tragedy of fentanyl overdose deaths that have destroyed so many families across our country.

“She did such an incredible job that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during her first term – we saved many lives!”

Bondi in 2018 filed a lawsuit against Drug manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma, accused them of a “strategic campaign of misrepresentation” that misrepresented their constituents to prescription painkillers, leading to addiction and in many cases death – with some companies having previously After participating in the multi-state agreement.

They later expanded the lawsuit to include Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy.

In 2017, he co-authored the Trump Presidential Commission on Opioid Crisis report, which included recommendations to address the then-nascent threat of fentanyl, which ultimately caused a massive increase in deaths under President Biden, Biden’s first three terms. More than 223,000 Americans died over the years. office, according to preliminary federal estimates.

As Florida’s AG, he filed a lawsuit in the Republican-led state’s unsuccessful effort to overturn the individual-health-insurance mandate in then-President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care law, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2012. Before Congress repealed it in 2017.

In another significant difference from Gaetz, who is a vocal supporter of legalizing marijuana, Bondy also opposed a state medical marijuana ballot measure in 2014 and defended a state ban on smokable medical marijuana in 2018. Nevertheless, she later used her powers to allow cannabis-derived CBD treatments.

As state attorney general, he defended Florida’s ban on gay marriage, as well as presented himself as a defender of gays and lesbians following the 2016 massacre of 49 patrons at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. It was done by a shooter taking the pledge of allegiance. To Islamic State.

Defenders, lobbyists of Trump impeachment

Bondi made national headlines with her vigorous defense of Trump while representing the then-President during his first impeachment trial in January 2020. Republican senators ultimately acquitted Trump of abusing his office to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden.

Bondi issued strong criticism and argued that it appeared there was a need to investigate corruption in the Biden family.

He told a Senate floor presentation that then-Vice President Joe Biden met with Devon Archer, his son Hunter Biden’s business partner, in 2014 while leading US policy on Ukraine. This was when Hunter and Archer joined the board of a corrupt natural-gas company, where the then-second son earned a salary of up to $1 million despite having no experience in the industry.

“There was a basis for talking about this, for raising this issue, and that’s enough,” Bondi said after reading press accounts and government official communications that raised corruption concerns involving the Bidens and the company, Burisma. Had gone.

The Post later reported that then-Vice President Biden had met with Burisma board adviser Vadim Pozharsky. April 2015 dinner In Washington and Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klychko, with whom Joe Biden met repeatedly, was working with hunter Burisma Geothermal subsidiary in August 2015 which was led by the second son.

Bondy joined DC lobbying firm Ballard Partners in 2019, where her clients included Amazon, General Motors and Uber.

These ties could create potential conflicts of interest for her if she becomes US AG – particularly as it relates to Big Tech issues, though it’s possible she would recuse herself from such matters.

federal filing show Bondi made $200,000 in 2020 and 2021, leaving behind Amazon, which has faced bipartisan federal antitrust criticism.