US Attorney-General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol. Photo / Demetrius Freeman, The Washington Post
A defiant United States Attorney-General Pam Bondi eagerly clashed with Democrats in a Senate oversight hearing today, as she defended her record against accusations she has weaponised the Justice Department to shield President Donald Trump’s allies and target his foes.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bondi countered that her predecessors in the Biden Administration had politicised the agency first.
She touted her efforts in eight months in office to refocus federal law enforcement on combating illegal immigration and violent crime.
She repeatedly dodged questions on pressing issues: such as the department’s decision to prosecute former FBI director James Comey; its review of its case files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; and a now closed FBI bribery investigation into Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan.
And again and again through almost five hours of exchanges, she lashed out at committee Democrats, responding to their questions with personalised, non sequitur attacks.
“Don’t you ever challenge my integrity,” Bondi responded to questions over whether she had improperly let Trump influence the department’s decisions.
“I have abided by every ethical standard. Do not question my ability to be fair and impartial as Attorney-General.”
Today’s oversight hearing, Bondi’s first appearance before the Judiciary Committee since her confirmation hearing in January, came at a contentious moment.
In eight months at the helm of the Justice Department, scores of veteran prosecutors and federal agents have been fired, forced out or resigned.
Bondi has endured persistent blowback from the right over her decision to reverse course and withhold documents related to the department’s investigation of Epstein.
And Democrats have assailed her for decisions to de-emphasise traditional work carried out by the Justice Department - such as enforcing public corruption, civil rights and national security laws - in favour of deploying resources in furtherance of Trump’s political aims.
Bondi’s combative exchanges, excerpted and shared on social media in real time by Administration officials, appeared designed to appeal to a president who has consistently prized partisan pugnaciousness in his Cabinet officials.
They could also counter criticism Bondi has received from some corners of Trump’s base who have called for her to more aggressively target his perceived foes.
She accused Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) of lying about his military record to win elections, insinuated Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) supported antifa, and questioned campaign donations Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) received which Republicans have since sought to link to a donor tied to Epstein.
At one point, she angrily dismissed Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) when he asked whether Trump had consulted with her before his deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, a city Durbin represents.
“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” Bondi shot back. “If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.”
Democrats expressed alarm about what they described as the swift erosion of the Justice Department’s credibility and Bondi’s willingness to accede to Trump’s growing influence over the agency - including his demands last month that she move quickly to prosecute those he considers political enemies, such as Comey.
Such levels of White House interference would “make even President Nixon recoil”, Durbin, the committee’s top Democrat, remarked.
Hirono expressed her concern more bluntly.
“What was once the Department of Justice has become the Department of Revenge and Corruption,” she said.
“Rather than pursuing cases without fear or favour, this DOJ seeks to favour the President’s friends and instil fear in his alleged enemies.”
Comey is set to make his first appearance in federal court tomorrow on charges he lied to Congress, accusations he has denied.
The Justice Department secured its indictment against him over objections from career prosecutors - including Erik Siebert, the former US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia - who had concluded there was insufficient evidence to move forward with a case.
Asked about her role in that investigation and the Administration’s decision to oust Siebert to make way for a new appointee willing to pursue a prosecution, Bondi refused to answer, saying she could not discuss ongoing criminal matters.
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) pressed Bondi on whether she interpreted a social media post from Trump days before Comey’s indictment, which urged the Justice Department to move swiftly to bring a case against the former director, as an explicit directive and an improper breach of traditional firewalls that for decades have shielded her agency from White House pressure.
“President Trump is the most transparent president in American history,” Bondi responded. “I don’t think he said anything he hasn’t said for years.”
The Attorney-General added: “Comey was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia by, I may point out, one of the most liberal grand juries in the country.”
Bondi sidestepped questions on a number of other issues, including: whether she had discussed the Comey case with Trump; whether she was consulted before the President deployed federal agents and National Guard troops to Democratic cities such as Washington and Chicago; and whether she thought there was a legal basis for recent military strikes on boats that Administration officials say were engaged in drug trafficking.
Republicans, including the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, commended Bondi’s leadership as a necessary corrective after years of what he has assailed as politicised decision-making under the Biden Administration.
Grassley yesterday released records indicating that the FBI, under Biden, had analysed phone records of several GOP lawmakers - including some of the Judiciary Committee’s members such as senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) - as part of its investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Those records were obtained through a grand jury investigation led by special counsel Jack Smith and showed only the numbers those lawmakers called and the duration of the calls, not their content.
Smith had previously disclosed steps taken by his team to investigate whether lawmakers had been involved in Trump’s alleged efforts.
Grassley today called those actions by Smith “an outrage” and an “unconstitutional breach”. He and several Republican members of the committee pressed Bondi to open an investigation of the matter and potentially pursue criminal prosecution.
Graham asked Bondi: “Can you tell me why my phone records were sought by the Jack Smith agents? Why did they ask to know who I called?”
Almost simultaneously, FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that he had fired “those who acted unethically” and opened an investigation into Smith’s subpoenas of the senators’ phone records.
Bondi declined to answer questions about any steps the Justice Department might be taking - though she characterised Smith’s broader investigation as a “wasted US$50 million” effort to “put President Trump in jail”.
Several senators reminded Bondi of vows she made during her January confirmation hearing that “politics would play no part” in her role as Attorney-General.
She also maintained at the time that she could not imagine a scenario in which the President might ask her to do something immoral, illegal, or unconstitutional over the objections of career Justice Department staffers.
Despite all that’s happened in the eight months since, Bondi insisted near the conclusion of the hearing: “I absolutely have upheld that commitment”.
- Perry Stein and Katherine Tarrant contributed to this report.
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