Trump picks Pam Bondi as his candidate for attorney general after Gaetz withdraws from consideration

President-elect Donald Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his replacement to lead the nation's top law enforcement agency, only hours after his initial candidate backed out.

Pam Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and after he was elected in 2016, her name was floated for various jobs in the administration but it never panned out.

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Trump made the announcement on social media Thursday evening, the same day that Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom the president-elect had chosen for the job last week, withdrew from consideration.

"For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans - Not anymore," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social page. "Pam will refocus the DOJ on its core mission of combating crime and making America safe again. I've known Pam for many years; she's brilliant and tough, and an AMERICA FIRST Fighter who will do an excellent job as Attorney General!"

Bondi was considered for the position before Trump hired her, according to a source familiar with the matter, and Bondi was regarded as one of the president-elect's favorite lawyers.

Gaetz's selection rapidly ran into difficulties, as his chances of Senate confirmation dwindled amid mounting demand from legislators, including those in his own party, to reveal a House Ethics Committee investigation against him.

The report, which has yet to be made public by the committee, includes the panel's inquiry into charges of sexual misconduct and other alleged offenses against Gaetz. The Florida Republican has angrily rejected the charges probed by the committee and the Justice Department, including claims that he had sex with a child in 2017. He has not been charged with any crime.

According to CNN, Trump phoned Gaetz on Thursday and informed him that he did not have enough votes in the Senate to be confirmed, and the former congressman later announced on social media that he would decline the candidacy. He praised Trump's newest appointment as "a stellar selection."

Bondi's name began to spread nearly immediately after Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for the job, with one person involved with talks indicating they had heard Trump was leaning toward announcing her nomination early Thursday afternoon.

While Trump has long liked Bondi, she is also close to others in his orbit, such as his new chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and his legal counsel, Boris Epshteyn.

According to a source familiar with the situation, Trump personally visited with Bondi at Mar-a-Lago before publicly giving her the position. Two individuals familiar with the discussion told CNN that the president-elect informed her of the decision Thursday evening at the resort.

Bondi's appointment would require Senate confirmation once she is formally nominated, but the president-elect's aides expressed satisfaction at the decision.

As of Thursday evening, there was a widespread belief among those working on the president-elect's transition that Bondi would have a far simpler confirmation process than Gaetz, given her experience as Florida's attorney general and her contacts on Capitol Hill.

One Trump confidant described Bondi as "a solid choice" and said that they "feel much better about her chances."

CNN reports that after sacking then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2018, Trump considered Bondi for a position in his cabinet. Trump said at the time that he would "love to have her in the administration."

But there were doubts about Bondi's ability to obtain Senate confirmation due to a disputed $25,000 gift made by Trump's foundation to Bondi's political action committee during her 2014 reelection campaign.

Democratic legislators accused Bondi of failing to conduct an inquiry into Trump University fraud claims after accepting the money. A Florida ethics tribunal exonerated Bondi of any misconduct in the case.

Bondi remained close to Trump, serving as a legal advisor in the White House and representing the president-elect in his first Senate impeachment hearing. She is also the chair of the Center for Litigation at the pro-Trump think tank America First Policy Institute, where she has helped lead some of their fight against the Justice Department's so-called "weaponization".

Bondi practiced law in Florida for more than a decade, first as a prosecutor in Tampa and then for eight years as the state attorney general, where she was known as a media savvy and effective litigator.

She was elected as Florida's top prosecutor in the conservative tea party wave and got increasingly politicized throughout her two terms in office, making regular appearances on Fox News and later becoming a prominent Florida surrogate for Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Bondi's court experience has frequently touched on contentious matters, putting her in the spotlight. Bondi spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to repeal Obamacare in 2012, and shortly after the tragic massacre at Pulse nightclub in 2016, she defended herself in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper for pushing to keep Florida's gay marriage prohibition.

"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 remarked during the interview about Bondi's claims in the aftermath of the shooting that she was campaigning for the LGBTQ community. "You said in court that gay people, simply by fighting for marriage equality, were trying to do harm to the people of Florida."

Bondi said she was only protecting the Florida Constitution and that the restriction was "not a law."

"That was voted into the state constitution by the voters of Florida," Bondi said reporters. "That is what I was defending." I never claimed I disliked homosexual people.

After leaving the Florida attorney general's office, Bondi joined Ballard Partners, a lobbying company with close links to Trump and Wiles. She represented Qatar from 2019 to 2020, according to records filed with the federal government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Bondi recently joined a group of pro-Trump lawyers who submitted an amicus brief with a federal appeals court in the special counsel's confidential materials lawsuit against Trump. The brief supported Trump's assertion that special counsel Jack Smith was improperly appointed, which prompted Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss all charges against the president-elect earlier this year.

Bondi has also allegedly been the subject of a legal case: a custody dispute with a Louisiana family over their St. Bernard, Master Tank, who went missing after Hurricane Katrina. The family claimed The Tampa Bay Times that Bondi snatched the dog, and Bondi accused them of mistreatment.

The lawsuit was resolved before to trial, and Master Tank returned to his family.