After the withdrawal of the controversial Matt Gaetz, Trump nominates Pam Bondi to Justice | US elections 2024

Implicated in a sex scandal, Matt Gaetz, whom President-elect Donald Trump had named attorney general of the United States in the controversy, gave up this post on Thursday. This is a setback for the Republican leader who, a little later, put forward the candidacy of another ally, Pam Bondi.

I am honored to announce that former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will be our next Attorney Generalannounced Donald Trump on his network Truth Social a few hours after Matt Gaetz's withdrawal.

For too long, the Justice Department has been used against me and other Republicans. Not anymorehe added with this new appointment which does not, however, mark a change of tone.

Pam will refocus the Justice Department on its primary purpose, which is fighting crime and making America safe againsupported the one who has presented himself for months as a victim of legal persecution.

If Pam Bondi does not carry the same skeletons as the one who was appointed to this position before her, she is also a loyal ally of the president-elect. She also took part in several of his political battles against the Democrats.

She notably participated in the legal crusade to overturn the results of the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden.

She was also part of Donald Trump's legal team during the first impeachment trial before the Senate in 2020. The 45^e President Donald Trump was accused of having exerted pressure on Ukraine so that kyiv conducts an investigation into his rival Joe Biden, of which the Senate with a Republican majority had acquitted him.

During Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York, which led to a guilty verdict earlier this year, Pam Bondi was also present in court.

While serving as Florida's attorney general, she and some of her Republican counterparts tried unsuccessfully to have the courts overturn the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed Obamacare.

During the campaign, the Republican candidate said he wanted revenge on his rivals, including politicians and the prosecutors who initiated the proceedings against him, should he be elected. These threats alarmed Democrats, but also several legal and constitutional experts.

A candidacy weighed down by a sex scandal

Matt Gaetz, a Trumpist politician, announced this afternoon on the X network that he was withdrawing his candidacy a little more than a week after obtaining a nomination that had sowed consternation in Washington.

There is no time to waste on a needlessly prolonged feud in Washington: that is why I am withdrawing my candidacy for Attorney Generalsaid the politician, contested within his own party.

He claimed to have arrived at this decision despite amazing support from the Republican senators he met on Wednesday to convince them to endorse his nomination.

Even if the momentum [pour ma candidature] was big, it's clear that the confirmation of my nomination was unfairly becoming a distraction from the crucial work of the Trump-Vance transition.

The Justice Department must be ready to get to work on the first dayhe argued.

On his network Truth Socialthe president-designate said he was certain that his ally is dedicated to a bright future.

Even if the Republicans will regain control of the Senate, which is responsible for confirming the appointments of Cabinet members chosen by the president-elect, that of Matt Gaetz was in danger.

Despite the lobbying campaign carried out among Republican senators, in particular by vice-president-elect JD Vance, who remained their colleague until his inauguration, he did not seem to have the necessary support to weather this storm. To see his nomination confirmed, he could only lose the votes of three Republican elected officials.

Despite Donald Trump's dominance of the Republican caucus, some senators did not seem inclined to endorse a candidate who is at the center of sexual allegations that have already been the subject of two investigations: one conducted by the department he was called to lead, the other by a committee of the House of Representatives.

Matt Gaetz resigned from his post as representative last week, shortly before the scheduled release of a potentially devastating report from the House Ethics Committee.

Several senators, even within the Republican caucus, wanted to be able to see the committee document before deciding on his nomination, but the Republican majority on the House Ethics Committee opposed making it public, citing the resignation of the representative.

Donald Trump, however, had mentioned using a process that would allow him to bypass the Senate for his appointments.

Serious allegations

Matt Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department for sex trafficking and obstruction of justice, but no charges were filed. One of his friends, who had agreed to collaborate in this investigation, was however sentenced to imprisonment.

In the same case, the House committee sought to determine whether Matt Gaetz, who allegedly slept with a minor, had engaged in acts of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, [s’il avait] accepted inappropriate gifts, granted privileges and special favors to people with whom he had a personal relationship, and [s’il avait] attempted to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.

Matt Gaetz has always denied these allegations.

The broad outlines of the allegations at the heart of this examination have been known for several years, but several additional details have emerged in various American media in recent days.

This week, the lawyer for two women who appeared before the committee claimed in various interviews that they testified about having sex for which they were paid when one of them was 17 years old. Matt Gaetz was reportedly unaware of her age at the time of the alleged sexual encounter.

Based on sources familiar with the testimony of the woman who, at the time, was a minor, CNN was about to reveal that Matt Gaetz allegedly had a second sexual encounter with her at the same party, information that had never been published in the media. This relationship also allegedly involved another woman.

The appointment of Matt Gaetz, a conspiracy theorist who is among the most partisan elected officials in Washington, also set off alarm bells in the Democratic ranks.

However, he was not winning any popularity contests within his own party. Very critical ofestablishment Republican, he had successfully led the revolt against the former President of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy – a Republican – who was forced to leave his post.

No plan B

With the nomination of Matt Gaetz, the most controversial on a list that contains several, the president-elect seemed to want not only to openly challenge the Democrats but also to impose a coup on a caucus over which he exercises domination.

According to CNN, Donald Trump, who did not back down despite the outcry, had no other candidate in mind.

American media reported that he was dissatisfied with the candidates considered by his transition committee and that he had bypassed the usual formal nomination process when he opted for Matt Gaetz.

Before this surprise appointment, American media sources had notably mentioned the names of the senator of Utah, Mike Lee, the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, the former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, the attorney general of United States Acting Counsel Matt Whitaker and former White House Counsel Mark Paoletta.

Last week, the president-elect also named three of the criminal lawyers who have defended him in legal proceedings he has faced since last year to the senior ranks of the Justice Department: Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Sauer. They should respectively be numbers 2, 3 and 4 in this department.

Other appointments are controversial, including that of Pete Hegseth, a former major in the US army who became a presenter on Fox Newsappointed Secretary of Defense. He was previously investigated for sexual assault. His lawyer admitted that he had paid money to the alleged victim, but he claimed that the relationship was consensual.

Donald Trump also appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine, as head of the Health Department, and Tulsi Gabbard, who has displayed pro-Russian positions, as director of national intelligence.

With information from New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and Agence France-Presse