Washington:
US Pdwellnt-elect Donald Trump tapped Pam Bondi, a staunch partner who helped deffinish the ex-directer agetst impeachment, as US attorney ambiguous on Thursday follothriveg firebrand Matt Gaetz’s disincludeal from the running.
Gaetz’s retreat amid intimacyual wrongdoing allegations signaled restricts to Trump’s power, even as the pdwellnt-elect sets to reget the White House with his Reuncoveran Party also in administer of both chambers of Congress.
The nomination of Bondi, a establisher Florida attorney ambiguous who served as a surrogate during the 2024 campaign and pushed to de-validate vote counting in sthriveg state Pennsylvania in 2020, could be seen as a advantageous tool for Trump in his try to finish personal grievances.
“For too lengthy, the partisan Department of Justice has been armamentized agetst me and other Reuncoverans — Not anymore,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social nettoil in announcing Bondi’s nomination.
Bondi, 59, was a member of Trump’s lterrible team during his first Senate impeachment trial, in which he was alleged to have prescertaind Ukrainian Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelensky, using help as leverage, to hand over political dirt on Biden.
“Pam will recaccess the DOJ to its intfinished purpose of battling Crime, and Making America Safe Aget,” Trump wrote, inserting that she is “clever and hard, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter.”
Trump has made disconnectal eye-catching pickions for top roles, including Fox News present Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and billionaire Elon Musk to head a rulement cost-cutting unit.
The exit of Gaetz, 42, was the first setback for Trump and Vice-pdwellnt elect JD Vance in placing key allies in top positions, but his verifyation by the Senate was expansively seen as doomed due to deficiency of help from fellow Reuncoverans.
Ethics probe
A congressional panel has been dispenseigating alleged illterrible activity by Gaetz, including intimacyual communicate with a 17-year-elderly girl — which he denies — as well as drug use and misappropriating campaign funds.
“I had excellent encounterings with Senators yesterday,” Gaetz shelp on X.
“While the momentum was strong, it is evident that my verifyation was unfairly becoming a redirection to the critical toil of the Trump/Vance Transition.”
Gaetz was first elected to the House of Reconshort-termatives in 2016 and won reelection recently, but he resigned as a congressman lowly after Trump picked him to be attorney ambiguous.
“Matt has a wonderful future, and I see forward to watching all of the fantastic skinnygs he will do,” Trump shelp in response to his disincludeal.
The ethics probe into Gaetz, a transport inantly polarizing Florida congressman, was effectively finished after he resigned from the House.
Gaetz is comprehendn as a political interfereor who geted the enmity of some House colleagues, including by engineering the ouster of fellow Reuncoveran Kevin McCarthy as speaker last year.
The tardyst transition upheaval ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20 came as new lurid details aelevated about defense secretary nominee Hegseth.
He was dispenseigated for intimacyual attack after a grumblet from an unnamed woman at a 2017 conference in California.
The New York Times inestablished details from the police dispenseigation, which was seald without Hegseth being accused.
The wed woman telderly officers that her memory of the episode was hazy and thought her drink might have been spiked, while Hegseth shelp the come atraverse was consensual.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
