CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President-elect Trump’s new U.S. Attorney General-‘Lady Justice’ nominee, Pam Bondi, isn’t ‘Blind’. She’s vowed to “prosecute the prosecutors” in the Department of Justice who investigated and indicted Donald Trump after he lost the 2020 election. Expect Bondi to try and scrub the DOJ with the ‘Grenade Soap’ being hawked by Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.
Bondi has been blindly loyal to Trump, with is one reason he picked her to replace Matt Gaetz after his withdrawal. Also, importantly, unlike allegations against Gaetz, Bondi has never paid to have sex with a 17 yr-old once, let alone twice.
Pam Bondi has twice been elected Florida’s Attorney General having spent the other part of her 20+ years in the legal profession serving as a prosecutor.
While Florida’s A.G., Bondi declined to join other States Attorney Generals litigation against ‘Trump University.’ Kamala Harris also declined to when she was California Attorney General. Unlike Harris, Bondi went on to be one of Trump’s defense attorney’s in his first impeachment hearing. She also had and continues to support Trump’s false 2020 election fraud claims.
On Fox News, prior to being nominated Bondi made this vow about the Department of Justice:
“The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated.”
Unlike, Gaetz, Bondi is confirmable and will be. With Bondi’s confirmation, the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General will both be former Trump defense attorneys.
State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg defended Bondi’s legal integrity:
“She is hands-on and she is also loyal to her co-workers, meaning she’s not going to try to push anyone out because they are a Democrat or a career prosecutor who is apolitical. She believes in the rule of law.”
Day after former Trump White House aide Rep. Max Miller said “Abhorrent” Gaetz could not be confirmed, Gaetz announced he was withdrawing. Gaetz exit followed a call from Trump telling Gaetz he did not have the votes.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on DAY 1.” Wrote Gaetz.
At least 5 U.S. Senators were ‘hard no’ votes for Gaetz: Senators Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Markwayne Mullin and John Curtis. It only takes 4 U.S. Senators to block confirmation.
Coinciding with the ‘hard no’ votes in the Senate conference was news from CNN that the woman who testified to the House Ethics Committee she was paid to have sex with Gaetz when she was 17, had sex with him twice. The incidents both happened at the same 2017 house party at different times.
An attorney representing the woman and her 18 year old friend, also at the party, said the woman testified Gaetz did not know she was 17 at the time, and when he later found out, did not have sexual encounters with her until she was 18. The attorney said both women were paid up to a total of $10,000 via Vemo for the encounters.
Gaetz confirmed he will not seek to be sworn into the House seat he was reelected to in the new Congress. When Gaetz issued his resignation from the current sitting Congress he added he did not “intend to take the oath of office in January.” Look for Gaetz to still end up somewhere in the Trump-Vance administration or on Fox News.