Jim Rosica
Attorney General Pam Bondi played coy with the press Tuesday over continued questions about whether she would be joining President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
Bondi, an adviser to Trump’s presidential transition team, met with him Friday at Trump Tower in New York.
After that meeting, she told the press, “I’m very happy being the Attorney General of the state of Florida right now.”
Asked again after the Florida Cabinet meeting, she joked with a reporter, “I knew you were going to be asking that question today!”
“And I’m not prepared to answer anything,” she quickly added. “I’m not going to confirm or deny anything right now.
“I went to New York at the request of the President of the United States-elect, and frankly I don’t think anyone should come out of those meetings and talk about anything that was said. I think all of that is and should remain confidential until the appropriate time.”
Bondi was an early Trump supporter, and a possible pick for U.S. Attorney General or White House counsel.
Trump instead named Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions and Don McGahn, former chief counsel to the National Republican Congressional Committee, for those posts.
She’s still being talked about to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy because of her work against pill mills and designer drugs. Its head is referred to as the nation’s “drug czar.”
But it’s still unclear what taint a contribution she accepted from Trump might have.
Trump ponied up a $2,500 penalty to the IRS after his charitable foundation broke the law by giving a contribution to one of Bondi’s political fundraising panels. The $25,000 contribution came from Trump’s charitable foundation on Sept. 17, 2013.
If Bondi does leave for Washington, it would fall to Gov. Rick Scott to name a replacement, who would serve the remaining two years of her term.
If Scott had anyone in mind, he wasn’t saying Tuesday. Asked repeatedly, the governor told reporters: “I’m hoping she doesn’t leave.”
