Former federal prosecutor and senior CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said on Friday that President-elect Donald Trump's next pick for U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, is "without a question" more qualified to serve in the role than former Representative Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz, a Florida Republican, on Thursday announced he was withdrawing his name from consideration to serve as the president-elect's attorney general.
The former congressman posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, that he withdrew his name because it is "clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition." Gaetz has been the center of a probe into his alleged sexual allegations and previously was on Capitol Hill meeting with senators to urge them to confirm him.
The probe stems from accusations that Gaetz was involved in recruiting women online for sex, including a 17-year-old girl. The Department of Justice (DOJ) last year told Gaetz that he would not face federal sex-trafficking charges.
Two other women had accused Gaetz of paying them for sex. Their attorney, Joel Leppard, told Newsweek on Wednesday that his clients were paid a total of $10,000 over Venmo and PayPal. Leppard said his clients had not wanted to publicly testify against Gaetz.
Gaetz has vehemently denied that he did anything improper and blames the accusations on a smear campaign. He posted to X that the allegations began under former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Meanwhile, Trump announced his nomination of Bondi, the former attorney general for the state of Florida, on Thursday evening, writing on Truth Social that she was a "prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families."
During an interview appearance on CNN on Friday, Honig told the network's Kaitlan Collins that Bondi is "way more qualified than Matt Gaetz."
"Last week when Matt Gaetz was announced as Trump's original pick, you and I said there's two main things you have to look at: qualification and independence. So, on the first of those, qualifications, Pam Bondi is, without a question, qualified to be attorney general."
He added: "She's been a prosecutor for 20 years in Florida. For eight of those, she was the attorney general of the state. That's a very big, very complicated job. And that level of experience is on par with or better than most United States attorneys general that we've seen over the past 50 years or so."
Honig went on to say that he thinks "if we compare her to Matt Gaetz, she exceeds him on every level by far. But if we go back to sort of a normal curve, I think it's a closer call. One person who I think is an interesting historical comparison for Pam Bondi is Janet Reno. Now, I'm not saying Pam Bondi will be Janet Reno, but Janet Reno had a similar background. She had been a state level prosecutor in Florida for about 15 years at the time when Bill Clinton nominated her to become attorney general."
Reno, the first woman to serve as attorney general, died in 2016. She was nominated to the role by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993.
Newsweek reached out to Gaetz and a spokesperson for Trump for comment via email on Friday.
In his Truth Social post announcing Bondi as his new attorney general pick, Trump wrote: "As Florida's first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths, which have destroyed many families across our Country. She did such an incredible job, that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during my first Term—We saved many lives!"
The president-elect went on to say that "for too long," the Department of Justice (DOJ) "has been weaponized against me and other Republicans - Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!"
Bondi is a longtime Trump ally, having served as one of his defense attorneys during his first impeachment trial. The Senate later acquitted Trump of charges accusing him of soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election by withholding military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country into investigating Trump's political opponent, President Joe Biden.
She also acted as a surrogate on the 2024 campaign trail and led the legal arm of the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank aligned with Trump.
Trump Foundation Check Complaints
Bondi has been the subject of past controversy. During the 2016 campaign, a $25,000 check that Trump's foundation sent to Bondi's fundraising committee in 2013 came under scrutiny. The donation was made four days after it was reported that Bondi's office in Florida was mulling an investigation into Trump University. Trump has denied allegations of impropriety, saying the check was not made in response to the potential probe.
The donation was discovered in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race after Trump's campaign confirmed that the then-Republican nominee paid a $2,500 fine for the donation after an ethics group complained it was not disclosed to tax officials.
"While there was never an investigation, staff, doing due diligence, reviewed the complaints and the New York litigation and made the proper determination that the New York litigation would provide relief to aggrieved consumers nationwide," Bondi's spokesperson said at the time.
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