When Matt Gaetz’s bid for attorney general crashed and burned over the course of eight days, it seemed inevitable that Donald Trump’s second choice would be vastly less controversial for the simplest of reasons: It’d be effectively impossible to pick someone more repulsive than the former GOP congressman.
The good news is that the president-elect quickly made another choice to lead the Justice Department. The bad news is that she’s only marginally less ridiculous than Gaetz.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has her own lengthy record of controversies, including having used her office to help promote and amplify Trump’s election lies following his 2020 defeat. Bondi is also on record supporting prosecutions for law enforcement officials who tried to hold Trump accountable for his alleged crimes.
But why stop there? Bondi also falsely accused then-special counsel Robert Mueller of leading a “corrupt” investigation that was “worse than Watergate.” It’s also of interest that she was a registered lobbyist for a variety of foreign and corporate clients, including the government of Qatar.
When was the last time the United States had an attorney general who worked as a lobbyist for a foreign country’s government? As best as I can tell, never.
And then, of course, there’s the Trump University story.
As regular readers might recall, the New York attorney general’s office went after Trump’s scam operation in 2013. Around the same time, Bondi took a similar interest in the fake “school” — Florida was a popular market for the future president’s fraudulent operation — though as The New York Times reported, the then-Florida attorney general followed a very different course.
[Bondi] publicly acknowledged that her office was examining complaints about Trump University, but it decided against a formal investigation. The decision came soon after Mr. Trump, through his family foundation, sent a check for $25,000 to a political action committee associated with Ms. Bondi, who was running for a second term.
It’s worth emphasizing for context that the campaign contribution was not legal: Charitable foundations are not permitted under federal tax law to make such donations to political candidates or PACs.
But that’s not what made this particular contribution so notable: Bondi took an interest in pursuing the Trump University fiasco; Trump’s foundation then cut a $25,000 check in support of Bondi’s re-election campaign; and it was at that point Bondi decided not to pursue Trump’s scam operation after all.
While she’s long denied any wrongdoing, the Times’ report added that the circumstances surrounding her decision “will certainly be re-examined now.”
That seems like a safe bet. In fact, Tristan Snell, a former assistant attorney general in New York, who worked on the Trump University case, wrote online last week that senators have a responsibility to examine this in more detail. “If she doesn’t give a good enough answer, ask more questions,” he added.
The last time Bondi appeared on Capitol Hill in a meaningful way, she was struggling to defend Trump during his first impeachment trial. Chances are that her confirmation hearings will be even more difficult.
