Pam Bondi was named Jan. 17 as a part of President Donald Trump’s legal team for his upcoming impeachment trial.
Bondi will join the likes of former law professor and O.J. Simpson attorney Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr, the former independent counsel whose investigation of former President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment, according to an anonymous source with the Associated Press.
Critics were quick to point out that Bondi, who is a longtime ally of Trump, is a highly controversial choice for his legal team considering the history the two share.
Bondi accepted a $25,000 donation back in 2013 for her re-election campaign at the same time she was deciding whether to prosecute Trump for fraud for his infamous Trump University. She decided not to prosecute, and it left several suspicious considering New York went ahead with the prosecution.
Bondi also has a long history of being anti-LGBTQ while being the attorney general. She filed a 40-page emergency petition with the Supreme Court to stop same-sex marriage in Florida. She made several comments about the community, such as saying that a marriage is “a union between a man and a woman.”
She was called a hypocrite by Florida’s LGBTQ community after calling herself an “ally” following the Pulse shooting. CNN host Anderson Cooper famously called Bondi out on television about this.
Bondi was trending on both Twitter and Facebook, with users questioning her place on Trump’s legal time.
“All of a sudden, this feels a little like the O.J. trial, with an All-Star band of defense lawyers,” political consultant David Axelrod said in a tweet.
All of a sudden, this feels a little like the O.J. trial, with an All-Star band of defense lawyers.https://t.co/cM83QVzFWK
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 17, 2020
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow also shared a picture of Bondi with Lev Parnas, the indicted Rudy Giuliani associate, with the caption, “This Pam Bondi?” The picture has been floating all over social media along with another photo of the two with Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.
This Pam Bondi? https://t.co/83rdphwk41 pic.twitter.com/VyjK5oa5WZ
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) January 17, 2020
Trump was impeached on Dec. 18 on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, starting with him putting pressure on Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals while he withheld security aid and obstructed the congressional probe.
Bondi has said that she believes Trump didn’t do anything wrong and Trump himself has called the impeachment “totally partisan. It’s a hoax.”
“Of course, it’s a stain on President Trump,” Bondi said to NPR Morning Edition back in Dec. 19th. “Now, will it be attached forever? Ultimately people are going to remember what the President’s done.”
