Former Attorney General Pam Bondi was diagnosed with thyroid cancer shortly after President Trump removed her from her post at the Justice Department last month and has since been appointed to an AI panel.
She has undergone treatment and is recovering. Since surgery a few weeks ago, she told CNN that she is “doing well.”
Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, said on social media that “Pam has been quietly kicking cancer’s ass the last few weeks.”
“@PamBondi has a heart of gold,” the former adviser to the Department of Government Efficiency said.
Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, responded to a post about her diagnosis, saying, “If anyone can beat this, it’s her.”
“This is terrible news, but Pam has been a dear friend for years, and I know she’s a fighter,” he said.
Mr. Trump has also appointed her to an advisory committee focused on AI policy: the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
David Sacks, co-chair of the council, said that “no one is better positioned to support PCAST and to advise the president on legal and regulatory matters than @PamBondi,” adding that he is “excited to have her on board.”
“President Trump understands that unnecessary regulation is the biggest threat to innovation in America,” the former White House AI adviser said. “Winning the AI race means not only beating China but also clearing bureaucratic hurdles thrown up by state legislatures and woke politicians in DC.”
The panel also includes Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Ms. Bondi will be tasked with facilitating coordination between the government and the tech executives on the panel, Axios reported.
Vice President J.D. Vance congratulated Ms. Bondi on her appointment.
“Pam has been an enormously valuable asset to the president’s team, and I’m thrilled for her and for all of us that she’s going to remain involved in confronting some of the most important issues the administration faces,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Trump announced Ms. Bondi’s departure from the helm of the Justice Department last month, amid frustration with political and prosecutorial missteps at the department. Her deputy, Todd Blanche, stepped in as acting attorney general.
The catalyst for her removal, after only 14 months in the role, came because of her office’s inability to secure criminal convictions against Mr. Trump’s political adversaries and her handling of the department’s now-infamous Jeffrey Epstein files.
The ex-attorney general is slated to testify Friday before the House Oversight Committee for its Epstein files probe. Her appearance involved a back-and-forth between the Justice Department and the committee over her compliance with a subpoena seeking her testimony as attorney general, a position she no longer held by the time of her scheduled testimony.
After her ouster, the president said, “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”
Her exit from the president’s Cabinet came amid a string of high-profile firings and agency leadership shuffles.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently announced that she will be stepping down after her husband was diagnosed with “an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”
