Trump's Cabinet pick for attorney general is Pam Bondi. Here's what to know
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Who: Pamela Bondi
Nominated for: attorney general
You might know her from: She served as Florida's attorney general for eight years, and later served as a personal attorney for President Trump during his first impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
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She publicly pushed false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
She says Trump was unfairly prosecuted after leaving office in 2021.
She has called individuals who investigated and prosecuted Trump members of "the deep state" and said they will face prosecution.
What does this role do? The attorney general leads the Justice Department and oversees the more than 100,000 people who work for it and its component agencies, including the FBI.
President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, appears before the Senate on Wednesday for her confirmation hearing to serve as the nation's top prosecutor.
Watch Bondi's Senate confirmation hearing, set to begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, here:
A former two-term attorney general for the state of Florida, Bondi is expected to receive broad support from Republicans, who hold the Senate majority, but face sharp questions from Democrats who have concerns about whether she will protect the Justice Department from undue political influence or use its vast powers to go after Trump's perceived political enemies.
Bondi, who is appearing for two days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, was Trump's second choice for attorney general.
His first pick, former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration amid a backlash over allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. Gaetz has consistently denied those allegations. Nevertheless, Republicans, who showed little enthusiasm for Gaetz, warmly welcomed Bondi after Trump named her for the job.
Unlike Gaetz, who had no prosecutorial experience, Bondi worked as a local prosecutor in Florida for almost two decades before serving as the state's attorney general from 2011 to 2019.
After leaving office, she served as a personal attorney for Trump during his first impeachment trial in the Senate. She also worked as a lobbyist for corporate clients, including Amazon and Uber, and lobbied on behalf of the government of Qatar.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has praised Bondi's record as a prosecutor, and called her well-qualified to lead the Justice Department.
"Bondi is prepared to refocus the Justice Department's attention where it ought to be: on enforcing the law and protecting Americans' safety," Grassley has said.
If confirmed, Bondi will lead the Justice Department and wield the vast powers that come with it. She will be responsible for enforcing federal laws, including voting and civil rights laws, as well as defending the Trump administration's policies in court.
The job of attorney general is one of the most important in any administration, but it is viewed as having particular significance in Trump's second term because of his tumultuous relationship with the department in the past.
'The prosecutors will be prosecuted'
Much of Trump's first presidency took place in the shadow of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.
After leaving office, Trump faced four criminal prosecutions, including two federal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith into Trump's handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump was not charged in the Mueller investigation, and neither of the Smith cases ever made it to trial.
Still, Trump has claimed that the Justice Department was weaponized against him, and during the 2024 campaign he repeatedly talked about seeking vengeance against his perceived political enemies, including at the department.
Bondi has echoed that view in some of her own public statements.
"The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted. The bad ones," she said on Fox News in 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."
Those sorts of comments have fueled concerns among Democrats that Bondi will use the department's prosecutorial powers to pursue Trump's stated desire for vengeance.
"The president-elect has made it clear that he values one thing above all else in an attorney general: loyalty," said Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, earlier this week. "I have no reason to believe President-elect Trump has changed his litmus test for attorney general or his views on how the Justice Department should operate. In fact, I fear he found someone who can pass his loyalty test."
Bondi has not spoken about how she would approach the job of attorney general since her nomination was announced, but in her meeting with Grassley in December she said she would "do my best every day to work tirelessly for the American people."
Several of Trump's personal attorneys are up for top jobs
If confirmed, Bondi would enter the job with deep ties in Trump world. She spoke on his behalf at the 2016 Republican National Convention, and publicly pushed false claims of vote fraud in the 2020 election. More recently, she led the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank led by former members of Trump's first administration.
Bondi is not the only former personal attorney of Trump's to be tapped for a top job at the Justice Department.
Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who have represented Trump in state and federal court, have been picked for deputy attorney general and another senior post, respectively, while former Missouri solicitor general Dean John Sauer, who represented Trump before the Supreme Court, has been picked as solicitor general for the incoming administration.
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