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Donald Trump moved quickly to replace Matt Gaetz as his nominee for United States attorney general, tapping Pam Bondi for the job within hours of the former Florida lawmaker’s withdrawal.
Gaetz dropped out of the process on Thursday saying his candidacy was “becoming a distraction” after the House Ethics Committee came under pressure to release the findings of its investigation into allegations he had sex with a minor – accusations he has consistently denied.
Bondi, 59, served as the Sunshine State’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019 and represented Trump in his first impeachment trial before the Senate.
But she is not entirely free from controversy herself.
She has been accused of declining to take part in a class action lawsuit against Trump University in 2013 after the Republican donated $25,000 to her re-election campaign.
But, perhaps more bizarrely, Bondi found herself caught up in a canine custody battle where she was accused of stealing a pet dog.
The saga began when Bondi adopted a St Bernard dog which had become separated from its family by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 from Florida’s Pinellas County Humane Society. She changed its name from Master Tank to Noah.
When the animal’s true owners, Louisiana couple Steve and Dorreen Couture, tracked Master Tank down to her home in Tampa Bay in January 2006 and found him in the lawyer’s custody, their request for his return was refused.
Instead, Bondi accused the grandparents of neglecting the animal.
“I took a dog who was a walking skeleton,” she told The St Petersburg Times at the time.
“That’s what was wrong with him before the hurricane.
“If I thought I was sending him to a stable environment, where he would be cared for, as hard as it would be, I’d put him in my car and drive him back myself.
“I made a promise to him that I would protect him.”
The Coutures denied her accusation, revealing that Master Tank had suffered from heartworms since he was 10 months old and continued to demand his return.
The family sued and a 16-month legal battle ensued, which ended with the two sides settling before the dispute came to trial.
Bondi eventually returned Master Tank to the Coutures with a supply of food and medication.
Plans for her to receive photos and updates on the pup’s wellbeing soon fell apart, with the Coutures claiming that the lawyer had failed to honor her promises to visit the dog and pay for his food and medical bills for life.
“It was a burden, it really was,” Doreen Couture told The St Petersburg Times in 2010 about the ordeal.
“Financially, emotionally, it was a really rough time.”
Asked whether the family planned to keep lines of communication with Bondi open, she added: “Why should I? She stole my dog… She has no compassion at all.”
Bondi eventually got a new pup, another St Bernard named Luke.
“I’ve received a tremendous amount of support from people and animal rights activists, and no criticism at all,” she said at the time.
“Really, it has not been an issue.”
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