{"id":18145,"date":"2024-11-22T06:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18145"},"modified":"2024-11-22T06:25:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T06:25:00","slug":"trump-picks-pam-bondi-as-attorney-general-after-matt-gaetz-withdraws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=18145","title":{"rendered":"Trump picks Pam Bondi as attorney general after Matt Gaetz withdraws"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated veteran prosecutor Pam Bondi as his new pick for attorney general, hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. <\/p>\n

Bondi has a long track record in law enforcement and previously served as Florida’s attorney general.<\/p>\n

A long-time Trump ally, Bondi was part of his legal team during his first Senate impeachment trial<\/a> and also publicly supported him by showing up at court during his hush money trial<\/a> in New York.<\/p>\n

“Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families,” Trump said in a social media post announcing his choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bondi has been close to Trump since his 2016 campaign, telling voters at a recent Trump rally that she considers him a “friend”.<\/p>\n

In 2019, she joined his White House to focus on “proactive impeachment messaging”, serving both as his legal advisor and defence attorney during his first impeachment – during which he was acquitted.<\/p>\n

She continued to be part of Trump’s legal team in 2020 as it made false claims that the election had been stolen from Trump due to voter fraud.<\/p>\n

She also served on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission, and more recently, has headed the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded by former Trump staff members.<\/p>\n

If confirmed by the Senate, Bondi will become the country’s chief law enforcement officer, in charge of the justice department’s more than 115,000 employees and roughly $45bn (\u00a335.7bn) budget. <\/p>\n

She would also play a key role in attempting to implement Trump’s vow to punish his political enemies once he takes office. <\/p>\n

She has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases brought against Trump, as well as special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump in two federal cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,\u201d Trump wrote on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

“Pam will refocus the DOJ [Department of Justice] to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”<\/p>\n

Trump’s other plans for the department include ending “weaponised government”, protecting US borders, dismantling criminal organisations and restoring Americans’ “badly-shattered faith and confidence” in the department.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Trump’s transition team will be hoping that Bondi’s nomination path will be less tumultuous than Gaetz’s.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the announcement, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham predicted that Bondi \u201cwill be confirmed quickly,\u201d calling her selection a \u201cgrand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news of Bondi’s nomination came about six hours after Gaetz said he would not seek the high-profile cabinet post, following days of debate over whether to release a congressional report on sexual misconduct allegations against him.<\/p>\n

Announcing his withdrawal, the 41-year-old said the controversy over his potential nomination “was unfairly becoming a distraction” to the work of the incoming Trump administration. <\/p>\n

The report included the findings of a probe sparked by allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gaetz has vehemently denied the claims but said that he hoped to avoid a “needlessly protracted Washington scuffle” by withdrawing.<\/p>\n

Later on Thursday, Gaetz offered his congratulations to Bondi, calling her “a stellar selection by President Trump”. <\/p>\n

“She\u2019s a proven litigator, an inspiring leader and a champion for all Americans. She will bring the needed reforms to DOJ,” he said. <\/p>\n

It is unclear if Gaetz, who resigned his House seat soon after Trump tapped him for attorney general, will now try to retain his seat. <\/p>\n

Since his resounding election win earlier this month, Trump has named several close allies to fill high-ranking positions in his administration. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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Source: <\/em> www.bbc.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated veteran prosecutor Pam Bondi as his new pick for attorney general, hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. Bondi has a long track record in law enforcement and previously served as Florida’s attorney general. A long-time Trump ally, Bondi was part of his legal team during his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}