Trump nominee Pam Bondi confirmed by Senate as US attorney general
President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee Pam Bondi was confirmed in a 54-46 Senate vote on Tuesday evening.
Bondi takes control of a Justice Department that has purged prosecutors who worked on cases against Trump, prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and ordered criminal investigations into state and local officials who interfere with his immigration crackdown.
Bondi served as Florida's attorney general from 2011 to 2019 and was a defense lawyer for Trump in his first impeachment trial. There, Trump was acquitted – largely along party lines – of abusing his power by withholding aid to pressure Ukraine's government to investigate then-Vice President Joe Biden, who went on to defeat Trump in the 2020 election.
Bondi will now helm the U.S. Justice Department at a time when Democrats fear Trump might try to use it to seek vengeance against perceived enemies. Already, the department has sent termination letters to more than a dozen officials who helped special counsel Jack Smith in the prosecutions against Trump.
"Acting Attorney General James McHenry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the President," a department official said in a statement.
On Monday, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., a Justice Department employee, said in a letter his office would pursue "any and all legal action against anyone" who impedes the work of Elon Musk and his cost-cutting initiative known as the Department of Government Efficiency.
In an August interview on Fox News, Bondi appeared to support targeting government employees who looked into Trump.
"You know what's going to happen? The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted – the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated," she said.
At her confirmation hearing, Bondi struck a less provocative tone in the face of questions from Democrats about the department's potential weaponization under a Trump administration.
"Every case will be done on a case-by-case basis," Bondi said. "No one should be prosecuted for political purposes. Absolutely not."
In his final hours in office, Biden preemptively pardoned a series of individuals who have been the subject of Trump's ire, including members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Bondi started her career as a state prosecutor in Hillsborough County, Florida before serving as the state's attorney general from 2011 to 2019. She became a corporate lobbyist, representing companies including Uber and Amazon, but became more involved in Trump's circle during his first impeachment over a phone call to Ukraine.
She was an early supporter of efforts to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election and attended the now-infamous press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Under questioning from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., she declined to say who won the 2020 presidential election, instead saying, "President Biden is the President of the United States."
Contributing: Joey Garrison.