Trump taps Kim Bondi for attorney-general after Matt Gaetz withdraws

Hours before his abrupt withdrawal, The New York Times also obtained a document in which investigators outlined how Gaetz and a friend sent thousands of dollars through payment app Venmo to dozens of people who allegedly were involved in sex parties from 2017 to 2020.

In announcing Bondi, a prosecutor of 20 years, as his new nomination for attorney-general, Trump posted: “For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponised 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!”

But Gaetz is not the only scandal-plagued cabinet pick Trump has made. As the president-elect steps up his push to make Peter Hegseth the new secretary for defence, the Fox News host has been accused in a newly released police report of raping a woman after he took her phone, blocked the door of his hotel room and refused to let her leave.

Hegseth, a 44-year-old army veteran and co-host of Fox and Friends, was never charged over the incident, which took place when he was a keynote speaker at a California Federation of Republican Women conference in October 2017.

But the 22-page report offers the first detailed account of what the woman alleged transpired – and one that is at odds with Hegseth’s version of the incident, which he insists was consensual.

According to the report, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, told police she was staying at the Hyatt Hotel in Monterey, California where she met Hegseth at an after-party.

Both had been drinking that night and ended up in Hegseth’s hotel room, where she reported that he took her phone from her after asking who she had been texting. She claimed she blocked the door with his body when she tried to leave the room and that she repeatedly told him ‘no.’” He then sexually assaulted her.

Hegseth has admitted paying the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off any potential threats to his career at Fox, the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable network where he came to Trump’s attention.

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Speaking briefly at Capitol Hill – where he is lobbying Republican senators to give him the job of running the multibillion-dollar Defence Department – Hegseth told reporters: “I’ll keep this very simple: the matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared. That’s where I’m going to leave it.”

And while news of allegations surprised Trump’s team when they first emerged last week, Republicans have nonetheless rallied around the nominee as he met senators at Capitol Hill on Thursday (Friday AEDT) to call for their support.

Among them was Republican senator Bill Hagarty, who posted a photo with Hegseth and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance after their meeting, saying he looked forward to confirming him.