Jacob Ogles
Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi is promising an end to political prosecutions from the Justice Department.
“There will never be an enemies’ list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi said during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But Senate Democrats at her confirmation hearing voiced fears that weaponization of the agency may reach new heights in President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, pressed Bondi on whether she would consider charges against former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, Vice Chair of the Jan. 6 Committee, or against Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor who brought two federal cases against Trump. The incoming President has publicly accused both of crimes.
“I am not going to answer hypotheticals,” Bondi said. “No one has been prejudged or not, nor will anyone be prejudged if I am confirmed.”
Hirono raised comments Bondi made on Fox News that bad actors will be prosecuted.
“You have an incoming President who said, ‘I have the absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department,’” Hirono said. “And in fact, President-elect Trump considers the DOJ to be his law firm.”
Bondi for her part stressed through much of the hearing that she would not allow the Justice Department to be used to prosecute crimes against political enemies, as she said occurred under President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“That is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump,” Bondi said.
“They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him. Actually, starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case. If I am Attorney General. I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered even-handedly throughout this country. … We’ve got to move forward, or we’re going to lose our country.”
But many times when Bondi declined to answer specific actions, she refused to speculate. Many Democrats said she needed to give more firm responses.
“Bluntly to me, refusing to answer a hypothetical when there is clear and concrete previous history raises some concerns for me,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat.
On her record, multiple Democrats took issue with statements by Bondi supporting Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Several times, Democrats asked her specifically who won the 2020 election.
“Joe Biden is the President of the United States,” Bondi said.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said that wasn’t strong enough. The same goes, he said, for her refusal to discuss if Trump should pardon those convicted of crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riots that sought to stop certification of Biden’s victory.
“You have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. You dodged that question when you were asked directly,” he said. “You have to be able to say that Jan. 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned.”
But Republicans on the panel voiced strong support for Bondi, precisely because they believed she would reduce the politicization of prosecutions.
“Miss Bondi will take the helm at a very turbulent time for this country and for that department,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. “The Justice Department is infected with political decision-making, while its leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality.”
Earlier Wednesday
Bondi promised a return to prosecuting dangerous crimes if she becomes U.S. Attorney General as she spoke to Senators at her confirmation hearing.
“If confirmed, I will fight every day to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice and each of its components,” Bondi said. “The partisans in the organization will be gone. America will have one tier of justice for all.”
Bondi delivered opening remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee as Senators considered her nomination as Attorney General by Trump.
Before taking questions from Senators, she stressed that her background as a prosecutor in Florida was a formative experience.
“Nothing has impacted my career more than my experience as a state prosecutor, because I got to know and still keep in touch with many victims and their families from when I was a prosecutor,” Bondi said.
She also looked back Wednesday at eight years she spent as Florida Attorney General.
“I proudly served for two terms. I was term-limited. I would probably still be there right now, had I not been kicked out of office by term limits. I loved being Attorney General. I did my best to keep Florida safe.”
Specifically, Bondi cited work fighting the opioid crisis, including shutting down pill mills and stripping licenses from doctors distributing painkillers. She recalled a fight with many Republicans in government when she wanted fentanyl scheduled as a narcotic as many officials still saw the drug as something used primarily for medical purposes.
“At that time, people thought it was something you merely got in the hospital on a patch after surgery,” she said. “I will do everything I can to fight that with the agencies that fall under the Department of Justice.”
Bondi pointed to a record of working on a bipartisan basis with other state Attorneys General on class action cases. She also fought price gouging and worked on hurricane relief.
Bondi on Wednesday made a strong pitch for criminal justice reform, noting she supported the First Step Act during Trump’s first administration.
“We have to fix the Bureau of Prisons, and I am looking on both sides of the aisle,” Bondi said. “The Bureau has suffered from years of mismanagement, lack of funding and low morale.”
One comment
Victoria A Olson
January 15, 2025 at 12:18 pm
She will put Millionaires & Billionaires ABOVE the Law. When she was attorney general of Fl. she was the ONLY state that did not prosecute Trump for scamming Trump University student. In 2013, the Trump Foundation made an illegal donation to a political group supporting Bondi’s attorney general reelection campaign in Florida. At the time, Bondi was considering whether to investigate Trump University for alleged fraud.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is denying that a $25,000 donation from Donald Trump is in any way connected to her office’s decision not to pursue action against Trump University, despite dozens of complaints in Florida, her spokesman said.
The donation came from one of Trump’s charities six days after Bondi’s then-spokeswoman told a reporter their office was “currently reviewing the allegations” against Trump University in a class action lawsuit in New York, according to internal emails that were among more than 8,000 pages of documents originally requested by The Orlando Sentinel and also obtained by CNN.
Florida never pursued any investigation or action against Trump or his university.
“While there was never an investigation, staff, doing due diligence, reviewed the complaints and the New York litigation and made the proper determination that the New York litigation would provide relief to aggrieved consumers nationwide,” Bondi spokesman Whitney Ray told CNN. In a follow-up statement Bondi said her office has “made public every document on this issue, which shows no one in my office ever opened an investigation on Trump University nor was there a basis for doing so. Any news story that suggests otherwise is completely false.” Don’t make me laugh Bondi Liar, Liar.