EXCLUSIVE — President-elect Donald Trump should seriously consider allowing attorney general nominee Pam Bondi to focus on violence against women, if confirmed, according to a leading national crime-fighting group.
The former Republican Florida attorney general was nominated this month for U.S. attorney general, news that was welcomed by National Crime Prevention Council Executive Director Paul DelPonte. NCPC, home to the cartoon crime dog McGruff, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that is outside the government but receives federal funding.
But besides going after Mexican cartels, perceived rogue district attorneys in cities, and overhauling the FBI, DelPonte said Bondi should focus on violence against women and, in doing so, seek to neutralize claims from women who have alleged abuse by Trump.
“I do think with a female attorney general coming in, that that is a great opportunity for her to speak out. I think it’s an area where the administration probably has some vulnerabilities so politically, I think it would be very smart for them to send attorney — hopefully Attorney General Bondi out very publicly, very visibly,” said DelPonte in an interview at the NCPC headquarters in Washington.
“She’s got a lot of experience prosecuting rapists and putting them behind bars, and to take those steps to increase awareness on that, and to let them know the Trump administration is gonna be tough on it, I think, would benefit them,” DelPonte said. “It would help silence some critics.”
Violence against women involves crimes, including verbal and physical abuse, aimed at women and girls because of their gender.
Trump has faced criticism for how he has talked about and treated women in the past. Trump has denied all instances of alleged abuse raised by numerous women over the years and claimed they were raised for political purposes.
In May 2023, a federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. The case has gotten renewed attention after ABC News journalist George Stephanopoulos mistakenly stated on air that Trump was “liable for rape.” ABC News agreed this week to pay out $15 million for the error.
Bondi did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but the incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Bondi’s background as a state prosecutor showed she was ready to carry out the same mission on a national level.
“As evidenced by her tough-on-crime record as the first female Attorney General of Florida, General Bondi will be laser-focused on returning the Department of Justice to its true mission: fighting violent crime, bringing criminals to justice, and keeping American citizens safe,” said Leavitt.
DelPonte said Bondi should take several key steps to quell violent attacks and discrimination against women in the criminal justice system.
First, the availability of hospital rape kits, or tests given to suspected victims of sexual assault, ought to be significantly boosted due to a well-documented, long-term shortage.
“She should use the power of the office to bring insurance companies and hospitals, hospital groups together and make it happen. The reasons it hasn’t happened are just insanely bureaucratic. And I think the attorney general can and should be able to cut through that, and that would be a great first step,” said DelPonte. “You can’t prosecute a case if there’s no evidence, yeah, and if a sexual assault exam is not done promptly, you lose the evidence.”
Bondi has experience in this particular area. In 2015, she pressured the state to test a massive backlog of untested rape kits and by 2019, the state was nearly through the backlog.
Second, Bondi ought to use her authority as potentially the nation’s top attorney to pressure state attorneys general to get more prosecutions across the finish line, with the promise of federal assistance.
“Using the bully pulpit, I think she’s in a great position, having been a state attorney general, to bring all the attorneys general from all 50 states and in the territories together and put a focus on, ‘How do we speed up prosecutions?’” said DelPonte. “Let them know that the Justice Department is behind this and is going to help them speed up the prosecutions.”
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Finally, Bondi ought to launch a public education campaign that teaches teenagers what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable so that they know how to recognize subtle and flagrant abuse against women and girls.
“We’re conditioned to think somehow this is acceptable, and it’s not. It’s an abhorrent act. And you have to sort of get at the root of that. And the root of that begins earlier in life, and it is a respect issue,” said DelPonte. “Trainings for college students, for people at that age when they’re in the beginning, their social dating lives, to realize there are certain ways you should act, and there are certain things that cross the line, educating people as to what that line is.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Trump team and Bondi for comment.
