Updated January 15, 2025 at 12:11 PM ET
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Who: Pamela Bondi
Nominated for: attorney general
You might know her from: She served as Florida's attorney general for eight years, and later served as a personal attorney for then-President Trump during his first impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
- She publicly pushed false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
- She says Trump was unfairly prosecuted after leaving office in 2021.
- She has called individuals who investigated and prosecuted Trump members of "the deep state" and said they will face prosecution.
What does this role do? The attorney general leads the Justice Department and oversees the more than 100,000 people who work for it and its component agencies, including the FBI.
Here's what happened at the hearing
Bondi pledged to be independent as the nation's top prosecutor, as she faced sharp questions from Democrats about her personal ties to Trump and past statements on election fraud and political retribution.
During her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Bondi repeatedly told senators that politics would not play a role in her decisions as leader of the Justice Department.
"Every case will be prosecuted based on the facts and the law that is applied in good faith — period. Politics have got to be taken out of the system," Bondi said.
But Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed Bondi on Trump's previous comments about targeting and prosecuting his political rivals. They also referenced examples of Trump pressuring his first-term attorneys general to take — or not take — certain actions.
"The concern is that weaponization of the Justice Department may well occur under your tenure, and we want to make sure that that's not the case, that you remain independent, that you remain able to and willing to tell the president no when that's necessary to protect the Constitution and the integrity of the department," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Bondi and Republican senators countered that they believe the department has been weaponized against Trump, citing the various legal cases against him. Justice Department prosecutors wound down the two federal criminal cases against Trump after he won the 2024 election, following longstanding department precedent. In a report on the government's election interference case released this week, special counsel Jack Smith said the evidence against Trump would have led to his conviction at trial — if not for his election victory that led to charges being dropped.
"They targeted Donald Trump," Bondi said. "They went after him, actually, starting back in 2016 they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case. If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation."
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican committee chair, charged that "by every metric, the Biden-Harris Justice Department conduct has failed to live up to our country's ideals."
"Ms. Bondi, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department's course must be for accountability," Grassley said.
A former two-term attorney general for the state of Florida, Bondi is expected to receive broad support from Republicans, who hold the Senate majority.
During her hearing, she said she will "fight every day to restore confidence" in the Justice Department, and that her "overriding objective will be to return the Justice Department to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals."
Bondi, who is appearing for two days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, was Trump's second choice for attorney general.
His first pick, former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration amid a backlash over allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.
Bondi and Durbin clash over false election claims
After the 2020 election, Bondi backed Trump's false claims that widespread election fraud had "stolen" his victory.
On Wednesday, the ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked Bondi if she was "prepared to say today, under oath, without reservation, that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?"
Bondi affirmed that Biden is the president, but added that she "saw many things" as a Trump campaign surrogate working in Pennsylvania.
"No one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity in our country," Bondi said. "We should all want our elections to be free and fair and the rules and the laws to be followed."
Durbin responded that the question "deserves a yes or no."
"I think the length of your answer is an indication that you weren't prepared to answer yes," Durbin said.
Republicans praise Bondi's qualifications
After leaving office, Bondi served as a personal attorney for Trump and worked as a lobbyist for corporate clients, including Amazon and Uber, and lobbied on behalf of the government of Qatar.
Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has praised Bondi's record as a prosecutor, and called her well-qualified to lead the Justice Department.
"Bondi is prepared to refocus the Justice Department's attention where it ought to be: on enforcing the law and protecting Americans' safety," Grassley has said.
If confirmed, Bondi will lead the Justice Department and wield the vast powers that come with it. She will be responsible for enforcing federal laws, including voting and civil rights laws, as well as defending the Trump administration's policies in court.
The job of attorney general is one of the most important in any administration, but it is viewed as having particular significance in Trump's second term because of his tumultuous relationship with the department in the past.
'The prosecutors will be prosecuted'
Much of Trump's first presidency took place in the shadow of Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.
After leaving office, Trump faced four criminal prosecutions, including two federal cases brought by special counsel Smith into Trump's handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump was not charged in the Mueller investigation, and neither of the Smith cases ever made it to trial.
Still, Trump has claimed that the Justice Department was weaponized against him, and during the 2024 campaign he repeatedly talked about seeking vengeance against his perceived political enemies, including at the department.
Bondi has echoed that view in some of her own public statements.
"The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted. The bad ones," she said on Fox News in 2023. "The investigators will be investigated because the deep state, last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows but now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated."
Those sorts of comments have fueled concerns among Democrats that Bondi will use the department's prosecutorial powers to pursue Trump's stated desire for vengeance.
"The president-elect has made it clear that he values one thing above all else in an attorney general: loyalty," Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said earlier this week. "I have no reason to believe President-elect Trump has changed his litmus test for attorney general or his views on how the Justice Department should operate. In fact, I fear he found someone who can pass his loyalty test."
Several of Trump's personal attorneys are up for top jobs
If confirmed, Bondi would enter the job with deep ties in Trump world. She spoke on his behalf at the 2016 Republican National Convention, and publicly pushed false claims of vote fraud in the 2020 election. More recently, she led the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank led by former members of Trump's first administration.
Bondi is not the only former personal attorney of Trump's to be tapped for a top job at the Justice Department.
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