Pam Bondi reshapes the DOJ around Trump's priorities

President Donald Trump’s choice of Pam Bondi to be attorney general last fall prompted sighs of relief in some Democratic and legal circles.

President Donald Trump’s choice of Pam Bondi to be attorney general last fall prompted sighs of relief in some Democratic and legal circles.

Trump’s first pick, then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who had been investigated by the Justice Department in connection with allegations of sex trafficking — he denied the allegations and the DOJ decided not to bring charges — was seen as someone chosen because he would do whatever Trump asked, regardless of the ethics or law.

Bondi was seen as a professional with deep legal experience: she had served as Florida’s attorney general for 10 years. It was true that she had served as one of Trump’s lawyers during his first impeachment trial, and supported his conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Still, Democrats and Republicans who knew her believed she was someone who’d stand up to Trump in a way Gaetz wouldn’t and refuse if the president asked her to do anything illegal or improper.

But since Bondi took the reins, the Justice Department has been operating in a manner dramatically at odds with how it has been run in the 50 years since Attorney General John Mitchell was sent to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal.

Vowing to end the politicization she says occurred during the Biden administration, Bondi has implemented her own regime of politicization, critics say. The Trump administration, with Bondi’s help, appears to be seeking to transform the Justice Department into a political instrument of the president — something that no Republican or Democratic administration has done since then-President Richard Nixon.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/s-trumps-justice-department-now-rcna195289

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