With Matt Gaetz nixed, who is Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s new pick for US attorney general? Formerly Florida’s top prosecutor, she doesn’t come without her own whiff of scandal …
With Matt Gaetz out of the running, who is Pam Bondi, US president-elect Donald Trump’s new pick for attorney general? Photos: Reuters; @pambondi/Instagram
Another controversial figure, Bondi supported Florida’s same-sex marriage ban and was accused of soliciting US$25,000 from Trump in exchange for not bringing fraud charges against Trump University
US president-elect Donald Trump is shaping his cabinet one controversial pick at a time. When it came to the nation’s attorney general, the Maga leader’s initial nominee was dedicated ally Matt Gaetz. However, after a House Ethics Committee probe investigating the former congressman for alleged sexual misconduct involving a minor and illicit drug use came to light, he backed out of his potential appointment.
Denying the damaging accusations, Gaetz claimed his withdrawal was an effort to avoid impeding the incoming Trump administration with a “needlessly protracted Washington scuffle”. Within hours, Gaetz was replaced by former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi as Trump’s new choice.
Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi addresses the Republican National Convention, via television feed, in 2020. Photo: EPA
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Unsurprisingly, Bondi, who was the first woman to be elected attorney general in the Sunshine State and who was once a Democrat, is now well known as a Trump loyalist. She defended him during his first Senate impeachment and openly supported Trump, now 78, at his New York hush-money trial when few other Republicans did. If appointed, this will be Bondi’s second turn in a Trump administration: she previously worked on his Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission. The 59-year-old was also in the legal team of the Trump-supporting America First Policy Institute.
Pam Bondi doesn’t come without her own whiff of scandal. She suffered a major backlash for supporting the ban on same-sex marriage in Florida and was once accused of soliciting US$25,000 from Trump in exchange for not bringing charges of fraud against Trump University. However, not enough evidence was found to create a case for bribery. Bondi has also faced much speculation about her love life.
So what do we know about Pam Bondi’s dating history?
Pam Bondi’s first marriage was to Garret Barnes
Pam Bondi speaks to reporters outside an election integrity volunteer training centre in Pennsylvania in June. Photo: AP
Pam Bondi walked down the aisle for the first time in 1990, when she was 24. That same year, she earned her Juris Doctor degree from Stetson University College of Law, Florida. Little is known about her first husband, Garret Barnes, but just 22 months in, the couple decided to call it quits and divorced. Bondi’s career had just started to take off, with her being admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991.
Her second husband was Scott Fitzgerald
Florida’s ex-attorney general Pam Bondi speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland in February. Photo: AFP
After divorcing Barnes in 1992, Bondi did not tie the knot again for five years. Per the Tampa Bay Times, she married a man named Scott Fitzgerald in 1997. The marriage lasted longer than Bondi’s first, but the pair parted ways before they could celebrate their sixth anniversary.
