Reuters :
US President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday he would nominate former Florida Attorney General (AG) and loyalist Pam Bondi to be US Attorney General, moving swiftly to replace his former nominee Matt Gaetz after the embattled former congressman withdrew from consideration.
Gaetz was the subject of a House Ethics Committee probe into allegations of having sex with an underage 17-year-old girl and illicit drug use. He has denied wrongdoing.
Bondi, 59, was the top law enforcement officer of the country’s third most populous state from 2011 to 2019, and served on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during his first administration.
She was also part of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial, in which he was accused of pressuring Ukraine to conduct a corruption investigation into his rival, now-President Joe Biden, by withholding military aid. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.
Most recently, Bondi helped lead the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a right-leaning think tank.