Summary
- Pam Bondi faced tough questioning by the Senate Tuesday.
- Senators accused her of politicizing the Justice Department.
- Concerns raised about targeting Trump's perceived enemies.
Since becoming the country's top law enforcement officer, Bondi has courted a great deal of controversy, with some claiming that she has not upheld the boundaries that keep the agency apart from the White House.
“President (Joe) Biden never directed the attorney general to prosecute his political opponents… What has taken place since January 20, 2025 would make even President Nixon recoil,”
Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told her in a blistering opening speech.
He claimed that when the president and his political cronies do wrongdoing, the Justice Department under Bondi has "become a shield for them."
Throughout the 2024 election campaign, Trump made frequent threats to target his political opponents. In a recent social media post, he seemed to chastise Bondi, calling someone he called "Pam," for his inaction.
Soon later, former FBI director James Comey, who oversaw an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, was indicted by federal prosecutors, sending shockwaves through Washington.
Comey, who is accused of lying to Congress in a case that many legal experts believe is fictitious, is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
The controversy has been exacerbated by the opening of investigations into US Senator Adam Schiff, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, all of whom have openly opposed Trump.
In what appeared to be an insult to Bondi, Trump named all three in his post.
Delaware Democrat Senator Chris Coons expressed his "deep concern" that Trump's statement "seems to have led to dramatic and sudden action by the department" by "urging you to go after and to indict and to prosecute specific, named people."
“We are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime. While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months, we have made tremendous progress towards those ends,”
she said.
Trump was facing numerous indictments for allegedly hoarding classified government documents and spearheading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election result before his election erased his own legal troubles.
Republicans claim that Bondi's team has less issues regarding weaponization than the Justice Department under Biden, which oversaw two of the indictments.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley released FBI documents the night before the hearing, revealing that Special Counsel Jack Smith surreptitiously collected phone information on eight Republican senators' interactions while looking into Trump.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about when we refer to the weaponization of government… we are ending this weaponization,”
Bondi said when Grassley brought up the issue.
Bondi also faced heat on her handling of the files relating to the federal investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
House Democrats supported by a handful of Republicans have been pressing for the release of the entire case file, after Bondi announced that the case was closed and that she had no new information to offer.
Which senators led the most aggressive questioning of Bondi?
The leading Democrat on the committee harshly attacked Bondi for firing experienced prosecutors and changing the Department of Justice into a weapon for President Trump. Durbin said Bondi's conduct had created a "historic stain" on the Department of Justice.
The senator, who is known for her rapid-fire questioning, pressed Bondi on a range of issues, including investigations and senior Department of Justice departures.
She pressed Bondi with persistent questions and references to alleged misdeeds related to a $50,000 cash bribe involving border official Tom Homan, urging Bondi for clear answers while highlighting evasiveness.