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Bondi confirmed Attorney General 54-46

4 February 2025 · written 8 June 2026

On 4 February 2025 the Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as Attorney General by a vote of 54-46 (Roll Call Vote 33, 119th Congress, 1st Session; PN11-2).12 All 53 Republican senators and Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted yes; the remaining 44 Democrats and the two Democratic- caucusing independents (Sanders, King) voted no.2 The Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings on 15 and 16 January 2025.3 The nomination followed the 21 November 2024 withdrawal of former Representative Matt Gaetz, the President’s first Attorney General pick, who withdrew after a pending House Ethics Committee report on allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.45 At her hearings, Democratic senators questioned Bondi over her service on the legal team defending President Trump in his first impeachment trial in January 2020 and her statements about the 2020 presidential election; Bondi declined to state directly that Joseph Biden won the 2020 election.67

  1. The Attorney General leads the Department of Justice under 28 U.S.C. § 503 and oversees the FBI, DEA, ATF, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Service, and the litigating divisions including Civil, Civil Rights, Criminal, Antitrust, Tax, Environment & Natural Resources, and National Security.89 Bondi replaced Acting Attorney General James McHenry, who had served since 20 January 2025 under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the DOJ-specific succession authority at 28 U.S.C. § 508.10

  2. The Attorney General’s prosecutorial discretion is exercised through the Justice Manual, including the Principles of Federal Prosecution at JM § 9-27.000; both are discretionary instruments revisable on confirmation of a new Attorney General.11 Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) governs the government-side dismissal of pending federal cases.12

  3. Recusal decisions on specific matters follow Department ethics rules at 28 C.F.R. § 45.2 (Disqualification arising from personal or political relationship).13 Financial-disclosure filings under the Ethics in Government Act, codified at 5 U.S.C. §§ 13101–13111, are processed by the Office of Government Ethics.14

Footnotes

  1. U.S. Senate, Roll Call Vote 33, 119th Congress, 1st Session, On the Nomination PN11-2: Pamela Bondi, of Florida, to be Attorney General, 4 February 2025. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00033.htm ↩

  2. CNN, “Senate votes to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general,” 4 February 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/pam-bondi-confirmed-attorney-general/index.html ↩ ↩2

  3. U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, opening statement of Chairman Grassley on the nomination of Pam Bondi. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/grassley-opening-statement-on-the-nomination-of-pam-bondi ↩

  4. NPR, “Former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s attorney general pick,” 21 November 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/21/g-s1-35211/gaetz-out-attorney-general-trump ↩

  5. CBS News, “Matt Gaetz withdraws as attorney general nominee,” 21 November 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/matt-gaetz-withdraw-attorney-general-nomination/ ↩

  6. Reporting on Bondi’s role on the Trump first-impeachment defence team (January 2020) and her 2020-election statements: New York Times, “Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Attorney General Pick, Defended Him at His Impeachment Trial,” 21 November 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/21/us/politics/pam-bondi-trump-attorney-general.html ↩

  7. NPR, contemporaneous coverage of the Bondi confirmation hearing and Democratic objections, January 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/15/nx-s1-5258943/pam-bondi-attorney-general-confirmation-hearing-trump ↩

  8. 28 U.S.C. § 503 (Attorney General). https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title28-section503&edition=prelim ↩

  9. U.S. Department of Justice, organisational structure. https://www.justice.gov/agencies/chart ↩

  10. 28 U.S.C. § 508 (Vacancies in the Office of the Attorney General). https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title28-section508&edition=prelim ↩

  11. U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Manual § 9-27.000 (Principles of Federal Prosecution). https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-27000-principles-federal-prosecution ↩

  12. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) (Dismissal by the Government). https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/federal_rules_of_criminal_procedure_-_dec_2022.pdf ↩

  13. 28 C.F.R. § 45.2 (Disqualification arising from personal or political relationship). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-28/chapter-I/part-45/section-45.2 ↩

  14. Ethics in Government Act provisions codified at 5 U.S.C. §§ 13101–13111. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title5-section13101&edition=prelim ↩

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