Bondi signals limited use of special counsels

Attorney General Pam Bondi signaled limited use of special counsels as she praised the judge who quashed charges against President Trump in his classified documents case.

“Special counsels from here on out in our country will be legally appointed, and they won’t be done constantly like they have been done in the past,” she told Sean Hannity during a Fox News appearance.

“The weaponization of government will end. No more special counsels out there targeting anyone.”

The remark aligns with comments she made during her nomination hearing in which she declined to commit to appointing a special counsel to investigate Trump if he was credibly accused of a crime.

Bondi has been a longtime critic of the investigations into Trump, as well as of special counsel Jack Smith.

Under Trump, the Justice Department has moved to drop its appeal of a ruling that found Smith was unlawfully appointed, a move that, if approved by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would also unwind charges against Trump’s two Mar-a-Lago co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira.

Bondi called the lower court judge who made the decision, Judge Aileen Cannon, a “brilliant judge.”

Cannon’s ruling that Smith was unlawfully appointed contradicted 50 years of precedent around special counsel authority.