Attorney General Pam Bondi has been sworn into office.
“I will restore integrity to the Justice Department and I will fight violent crime throughout this country and throughout this world and make America safe again,” Bondi vowed at the ceremony.
At a White House press conference, she was introduced by President Donald Trump before being administered an oath by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with family at her side.
“She’s worked hard, so hard, and is so unbelievably fair and unbelievably good at law enforcement,” Trump said.
Trump in November nominated Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General, to head the Department of Justice. The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination on Tuesday night on a 54-46 vote.
The President praised Bondi’s record over eight years as Florida’s Attorney General.
“Pam was a career prosecutor for nearly 20 years and was one of the toughest and smartest and best and most successful attorney generals in the history of Florida,” Trump said. “I think she’s going to end up going down as the most successful, or certainly one of the most successful, attorney generals that this country has ever had.”
Both Bondi and Trump said they want to end a “weaponization” of the Justice Department, which pursued criminal charges against Trump while he was running for President. Charges were dropped after Trump won the presidential election in November.
Shortly after the election, Trump had nominated former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican, for Attorney General, but he withdrew from consideration while facing a difficult confirmation process. Gaetz did resign his House seat and was not sworn into a new term in January after the release of an embarrassing House Ethics Committee report.
Bondi was Florida’s first female Attorney General, serving from 2011 until 2019.
Both of Florida’s U.S. Senators supported her confirmation.
U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who succeeded Bondi as Florida Attorney General before her recent appointment to the Senate, posted a picture of a card Bondi gave her during the transition into the state Cabinet post in 2019. Moody, a Plant City Republican, returned the praise offered in that card.
“So excited to vote to confirm my friend Pam Bondi for US Attorney General,” Moody posted on X. “Congratulations AG Pam Bondi, ‘you will be the Greatest AG.’”
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