The incoming president has tapped five attorneys who have been on his legal team to serve in government roles.
Topline
President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his attorney general on Thursday, after Bondi previously represented him at his impeachment trial—marking the latest in a string of Trump’s personal attorneys who have been rewarded with government roles since his election.Key Facts
Pam Bondi: While best known for her former role as Florida’s attorney general, Bondi served on Trump’s legal team for his first impeachment in 2019, when Trump faced allegations of asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for military aid, and Politico reports she also worked with Rudy Giuliani after the 2020 election to try and challenge Pennsylvania’s election results.
Bondi served as Florida’s top law enforcement official from 2011 to 2019, after previously serving as a local prosecutor in the state’s Hillsborough County, and has more recently worked as a lobbyist and led legal efforts for America First Policy Institute, a right-wing nonprofit that’s reportedly crafting policy plans for Trump’s second term.
Will Scharf: Trump named Scharf to serve as his White House staff secretary—who handles the inflow of reports and briefings that go to Trump—after previously representing him in court as part of Trump’s federal criminal case to overturn the 2020 election and related court battle over whether Trump is immune from criminal charges.
Scharf is an attorney and former assistant U.S. attorney at the Justice Department who previously ran for Missouri’s attorney general, but ultimately lost in the primary election.
Doug Collins: Trump tapped Collins, a former congressman, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, after Collins previously served as part of the former president’s legal team, with Politico reporting in 2021 that Collins represented Trump when Democratic lawmakers were investigating him after he left office.
Collins is an Air Force veteran and pastor who previously represented Georgia’s 9th district in Congress from 2013 to 2021, and ran for Senate in Georgia in 2020 but failed to make it to the general election.
Todd Blanche: Trump named Blanche to serve as deputy attorney general in his administration—the Justice Department’s number two role—after the attorney represented Trump at his criminal trial in Manhattan based on hush money payments made before the 2016 election, also serving on Trump’s legal team in his two federal criminal cases, for trying to overturn the 2020 election and allegedly withholding White House documents.
