Trump stocks Justice Department with personal lawyers after loyalty complaints during his first term
President Donald Trump hasn’t been attending the swearing-in ceremonies for his Cabinet officials in the last two weeks, having Vice President JD Vance and others take part in the ceremonial moments — until Wednesday, when Attorney General Pam Bondi took her oath of office.
President Donald Trump hasn’t been attending the swearing-in ceremonies for his Cabinet officials in the last two weeks, having Vice President JD Vance and others take part in the ceremonial moments — until Wednesday, when Attorney General Pam Bondi took her oath of office.
It was a notable shift as he welcomed the new attorney general, whose confirmation process revolved mostly around whether Bondi — a Florida Republican and former member of Trump’s personal legal team — would make decisions independently from the White House.
It’s not the first time those questions came up when a president tapped a personal lawyer or ally to the Department of Justice.
The clearest precedent for choosing personal lawyers for top jobs at the Department of Justice is William French Smith, who was President Ronald Reagan’s first attorney general after serving as his estate lawyer. Perhaps no president and attorney general came into office with a stronger personal bond than when President John F. Kennedy nominated his 35-year-old brother, Robert F. Kennedy, for the post. And President Richard Nixon and John Mitchell were law firm colleagues before Mitchell ran Nixon’s 1968 campaign, served as attorney general and then resigned to run Nixon’s infamous 1972 campaign.
Now it’s Bondi, a former Florida state attorney general who represented Trump in his first impeachment trial and was involved in the legal team that sought to overturn the 2020 election. Trump also named Todd Blanche, his lead defense lawyer in the New York hush money case, who also worked on Trump’s other federal criminal cases in 2023 and 2024, to be Bondi’s deputy. Blanche’s co-counsel, Emil Bove, was named principal associate deputy attorney general and has been acting deputy attorney general while Blanche awaits confirmation. John Sauer, who successfully argued Trump’s presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court, has been tapped to serve as solicitor general, where he would argue cases before the high court.
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