Ashley Moody applauds ‘fighter for justice’ Pam Bondi as Donald Trump’s AG pick

From left, Richard Doran, Bill McCollum, Pam Bondi, Jim Smith, and Bob Butterworth attended the lunch, representing four decades of service. Moody said she hopes to make a tradition out of the meeting. Image via Attorney General Moody’s press office.

Florida’s current Attorney General wants her immediate predecessor to be confirmed as the nation’s top lawyer, in the latest sign that Sunshine State Republicans are united behind President-elect Donald Trump’s pick.

“Pam Bondi is a proven leader and fighter for justice,” said Ashley Moody in a statement accompanying a letter from 30 Attorneys General to Senate leadership.

“After her work over nearly two decades of prosecuting murderers and standing up for crime victims, she became Florida’s first female Attorney General and took the fight straight to the drug smugglers, human traffickers and serial rapists.”

Moody also notes that Bondi “shut down pill mills, put human traffickers behind bars and fought to eliminate the backlog of untested sexual assault kits — to bring predators to justice and some sense of closure to victims of rape.” Moody added that Bondi’s “stellar record as an attorney general, state prosecutor and fighter for justice has prepared her to serve as the nation’s 87th U.S. Attorney General.”

Other AGs signing onto the communication to Senate leadership hail from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The letter credits Bondi with her work after the mass murder at a high school in Parkland in 2018, noting that “she spearheaded the creation of a mobile app designed to allow students to easily report suspicious activity directly to authorities.” Additionally, she is credited with the National Mortgage Settlement among “numerous multi-state efforts.”

“She will bring to the office a unique combination of civil and criminal experience and a tenacious work ethic. Most importantly, she will bring a steadfast and unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” the AGs concluded.