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US President-elect, Donald Trump has appointed Pam Bondi as the next attorney general, following Matt Gaetz’s decision to withdraw from consideration.
Bondi’s selection underscores her extensive legal experience and her strong connections to the Trump administration.
She practised law in Florida for over a decade, first as a prosecutor in Tampa and later as the state’s attorney general, where she served two terms. Bondi gained recognition for her effectiveness in court and her ability to navigate the media landscape.
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Elected during the conservative Tea Party wave, Bondi’s tenure as Florida’s top prosecutor became increasingly partisan. She regularly appeared on Fox News and took on a significant role as a Florida representative for Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. Her political prominence often placed her at the centre of contentious national debates.
In 2012, Bondi led an unsuccessful legal effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Four years later, in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, she faced public criticism for defending Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage. During a widely discussed interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Bondi was pressed on her claims of support for the LGBTQ community despite her previous courtroom arguments.
“I talked to a lot of gay and lesbian people here who are not fans of yours and who thought you were being a hypocrite,” Cooper said, referencing her legal stance that fighting for marriage equality was harmful to Floridians.
Bondi defended her position, explaining that she was fulfilling her constitutional responsibilities. “That was voted into the state constitution by the voters of Florida,” she said.
“That’s what I was defending. … I never said I don’t like gay people.”
After leaving office, Bondi joined Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump. While there, she represented Qatar from 2019 to 2020, according to filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Bondi later joined a group of pro-Trump attorneys who filed an amicus brief in the classified documents case against Trump. The brief argued that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawful, a claim that contributed to Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss charges against the president-elect earlier this year.
(CNN)
