Former Florida AG Pam Bondi named to Trump’s impeachment defense team

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has been part of President Donald Trump’s impeachment communications team, will be part of the defense for his Senate trial, according to several Washington, D.C.-based news outlets.

Bondi, a former assistant state attorney from Hillsborough County who spent eight years as Florida’s top elected legal official and is a close ally of Trump’s, went to work for the White House in November to represent the president before the media during the House inquiry.

Trump’s legal team for the upcoming Senate trial also includes former Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr, who was appointed in 1994 to head the Whitewater investigation involving former President Bill Clinton that resulted in Clinton’s impeachment by the House four years later.

White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow, a long-term personal attorney for Trump, are expected to lead the team, according to the news reports.

On the other side of the case, Orlando U.S. Rep. Val Demings will serve as one of the House Democratic impeachment managers for the trial, which is expected to start the middle of next week.