Pam Bondi, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be lawyer normal, testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee affirmation listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
The Republican-led U.S. Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as the brand new U.S. lawyer normal on Tuesday, propelling one in all President Donald Trump‘s staunchest political allies to the highest perch of American legislation enforcement.
The 54-46 vote to verify of the previous Florida state lawyer normal will assist Trump solidify his management over the U.S. Justice Division, which has just lately seen sweeping cuts focusing on prosecutors and FBI brokers who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by the president’s supporters.
Democratic Senator John Fetterman joined all 53 Republicans in voting for Bondi.
Bondi, 59, vowed to take care of the division’s independence throughout a affirmation listening to final month, telling lawmakers she won’t inject politics into felony or civil investigations.
However lawmakers proceed to harbor issues about whether or not she’s going to resist probably improper or unlawful orders from Trump, after the firings of dozens of prosecutors who pursued felony expenses in opposition to him.
After coming into workplace on Jan. 20, Trump signed an government order blasting what he referred to as the “weaponizing” of federal legislation enforcement and intelligence companies and ordered the lawyer normal to “overview the actions of all departments and companies exercising civil or felony enforcement authority.”
Bondi, who spent many years as a prosecutor, represented Trump throughout his first impeachment trial. She has additionally echoed a few of his false claims about voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election.
The incoming lawyer normal holds a stake in Trump’s media firm, the Trump Media and Expertise Group, based on monetary disclosures she filed with the Workplace of Authorities Ethics.
Bondi was Trump’s second choose for the highest U.S. legislation enforcement job. His first selection, former U.S. Consultant Matt Gaetz, resigned from Congress and withdrew his title from consideration simply earlier than a Home of Representatives ethics report discovered that he had paid girls for intercourse and medicines and obstructed Congress.
Gaetz up to now is the one Trump cupboard nominee to finish his bid for the workplace. Senate committees on Tuesday superior the nominations of two of Trump’s most controversial nominees, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the nation’s prime well being official and Tulsi Gabbard to function its prime spy.