Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence

(NEW YORK) — On the same day that former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, Trump announced that he will pick former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to fill that role in his administration.

Bondi, 59, has remained in Trump’s inner circle for years and has continued to advise him on legal matters. She was one of the lawyers who defended Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial.

“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!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Bondi’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. She did not immediately comment about Trump’s announcement.

For more than a decade, Bondi has been a key Trump supporter and has been involved in some controversies, including the “big lie,” pushed by Trump in 2020.

In 2013, the Trump Foundation sent a $25,000 donation to Bondi’s fundraising committee for her attorney general reelection campaign. Around the same time, Bondi’s office had been considering reviewing a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general’s office that probed Trump and Trump University, but it ultimately did not join the suit.

Bondi and Trump both denied allegations that the donation led to her decision to not join the lawsuit. She endorsed Trump for his presidential run and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention leading a “lock her up chant” against then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. She also served as a co-chair of Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.

Bondi left the Florida Attorney General’s office in 2019 and a year later was named part of Trump’s defense team for his first impeachment trial. He was acquitted in the Senate.

Bondi continued to be part of Trump’s legal team during the 2020 election and repeatedly made false claims about voter fraud when he lost to Joe Biden.

Recently, she has been a member of the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute where she serves as the chair for the Center for Litigation, and co-chair of the Center for Law and Justice, according to the think tank’s website.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s advisers may have publicly insisted he doesn’t need any debate prep, but the former president is preparing more than he’s letting on, sources tell ABC News.

Trump is holding informal policy sessions with a small team of advisers, including GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who once challenged Vice President Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2019, the sources said.

Gaetz has been firing questions at Trump around some of the more challenging issues, such as his legal troubles, including his federal indictments on election interference and retaining classified documents, criminal conviction in the New York hush-money case and stance on abortion, according to the sources.

Two people familiar with Trump’s preparation also told ABC News that Trump has been briefed on Harris’ past debates, including the headline-making moment when she hit back at former Vice President Mike Pence with the words, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.” That exchange went viral then, and Trump has privately told his allies he won’t let that happen to him.

Sources told ABC News that Trump’s recent press address on Friday has left some on the GOP side with pre-debate concerns.

While Trump has continued with his campaign schedule, his movements on Friday puzzled some Republicans. Trump, following his appeal of the $5 million a federal jury awarded writer E. Jean Carroll after finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, came before the cameras rattling off — in often vivid detail — the accusations of sexual misconduct from multiple women over the years. All of which he has denied.

Meanwhile, as ABC News previously reported, Harris has been engaged in traditional debate prep in Pittsburgh.

The cameras caught her in the city on Sunday on a walk with second gentleman, Doug Emhoff. But, she ignored two shouted questions on Trump’s claims that he’ll jail his political opponents and how she plans to respond to personal attacks from Trump on the debate stage.

On Saturday, Trump posted on TruthSocial, writing, “… the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election have continually been disproven.

Harris, on Sunday, did respond to a third question shouted at her by the media about whether she was ready by echoing, “ready,” and giving a thumbs up before disappearing around the side of a building.

In related news, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will appear in the spin room following the debate, ABC News has confirmed.

The ABC News presidential debate will take place on Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET and air on ABC and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu.

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(WASHINGTON) — Moments before a convicted Jan. 6 rioter was sentenced to eight years in prison on Thursday, he sought a full pardon by claiming that Donald Trump’s victory on Election Day vindicated his actions.

Zachary Alam told the court that he wanted a new classification of pardon, which he called a “full pardon of patriotism,” for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. That would come with monetary compensation, expungement of the charges from his criminal record and the assurance that he would never again be charged for his crimes.

Alam seemed to characterize anything less as a “second-class pardon” and implied that he would not accept it.

Although Alam did not deny his actions during the riot on the Capitol, stating, “I will 100% admit my actions were not lawful on January 6,” he also justified them by saying he was doing the right thing to protect democracy.

“True patriots do the right thing in spite of everything else,“ he claimed, adding that his fellow rioters had “fought, cried, bled and died for what is right.”

“Trump wasn’t lying,” Alam said in court, emphasizing that the American people voted for him “four years later.”

Judge Dabney Friedrich described Alam’s actions as a “full-throated” attack on the Constitution and “not the acts of a patriot.”

She called Alam one of the “most violent and aggressive” rioters that day, noting that Capitol Police officers also described him as the loudest among them.

At his trial, law enforcement officials recalled him repeatedly telling them, “I’m going to f— you up.”

Lawyers for the Justice Department, meanwhile, noted that Alam stood out on Jan. 6 “because of his actions.”

Those included knocking out the glass door of the Speaker’s Lobby and pushing up against three Capitol Police officers who were trying to keep the mob from entering the floor of the House of Representatives.

He scaled four floors of the Capitol, kicked doors and threw a velvet rope over a balcony in an attempt to hit officers below.

In the courtroom, the Justice Department asserted, “There are consequences to taking law into your own hands.”

Leaving the Capitol after Ashli Babbitt was shot, Alam shouted to fellow rioters that they “need guns.”

He then fled and tried to conceal his identity.

He was arrested about a month later.

Alam also claimed in court that the Justice Department coerced defendants into taking plea deals — an argument the judge dismissed on Thursday.

He asked if the insurgence on Jan. 6 had truly threatened democracy, observing in court that the American people had reelected Trump just 48 hours prior.

“Sometimes you have to break the rules to do the right thing,” he said.

Alam’s attorney Steven Metcalf argued that his client should serve five years in prison, including the nearly four years he had already served, along with time in a halfway house.

Metcalf noted that his client had no friends and had been in and out of solitary confinement, both for his behavior and concerns about his safety.

The attorney said in court that some people are not going to change their beliefs, but conceded that Alam “can’t choose to take things in his own hands.”

He emphasized the need for rehabilitation to help people like his client.

Alam’s attorney depicted him as a defendant who lacked a support system. At the time of the Jan. 6 riot, he was living inside a storage unit and was not close with his family, according to Metcalf. His parents never appeared in court.

He asserted that Capitol Police officers were not traumatized by Alam specifically, arguing that they were not physically hurt by him or his direct actions.

The judge challenged Metcalf’s argument, emphasizing that the Capitol Police officers stationed in the Speaker’s Lobby were the “last stand” between rioters and lawmakers.

She said Alam’s actions contributed to the trauma that those officers faced on Jan 6.

Alam said that he was willing to undergo rehabilitation, but the judge — citing his lack of remorse — instead sentenced him to over eight years in prison and three years of supervised release.

ABC News’ T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.

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