“`html
Pam Bondi’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee was anticipated to be a contentious and partisan event, and it fully lived up to those expectations.
The Attorney General’s inaugural congressional oversight hearing was particularly timely.
Two weeks prior, her Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey, prompting significant backlash from Democratic lawmakers.
Her testimony on Tuesday also coincided with the release of a letter from former Justice Department employees, accusing Bondi of wielding a “sledgehammer” against the department’s “longstanding work to protect communities and the rule of law.”
With tensions high, Bondi arrived prepared for a confrontation. Here are five key takeaways from the hearing.
Recent Trump administration figures, including Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. and FBI Director Kash Patel, have employed a consistent strategy when testifying before hostile congressional committees.
That strategy is to initiate an aggressive offensive early and often.
This tactic was evident throughout Bondi’s testimony. When questioned about National Guard deployments, she expressed her desire that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and California Senator Alex Padilla would love their states “as much as they hate Donald Trump.”
In response to inquiries about Jeffrey Epstein, she pointed out that several Democratic senators had accepted contributions from wealthy donors with ties to the deceased convicted sex offender.
Bondi launched a series of pointed attacks on senators as they questioned her.
When it was Senator Peter Welch’s turn to ask questions, he began by noting Bondi’s inclination to launch personal attacks.
“I’ll be waiting for my turn,” the soft-spoken New Englander said. “But you don’t have to do it now.”
In instances where Bondi wasn’t on the offensive, she frequently declined to answer questions posed by both Democrats and Republicans.
She cited “personnel matters” as her reason for refusing to discuss the wave of senior-level Justice Department dismissals, including those of top FBI officials and a US lawyer who advised against the Comey indictment.
She refrained from commenting on “ongoing investigations” and legal proceedings, including the Comey case. Additionally, she declined to provide insight into her conversations with the President or other White House staff.
When presented with a large photograph of her seated at a table with the president, the day after Trump posted on Truth Social calling for her to indict Comey, her only comment was that she loved the picture.
“This is supposed to be an oversight hearing where members of Congress can get serious answers to serious questions,” California Senator Adam Schiff stated, after listing all the questions that Bondi had refused to answer.
“I think you owe the president an apology for your entire career,” Bondi replied.
Bondi seemed determined to emphasize what she described as the Trump administration’s objective of reducing crime in the US.
She readily cited statistics that she asserted demonstrated their successes thus far, including the number of arrests in Washington DC, drug crackdowns and illegal firearm confiscations in Chicago, and drug seizures at the border.
“We are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime,” Bondi said.
While Democrats may have had different priorities, Bondi and the White House likely believe they are on the most secure political footing when discussing crime-fighting.
Polls suggest that this issue is of concern to many Americans and has the potential to appeal not only to staunch conservative partisans but also to independent and Democratic voters.
The Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, who had documented ties to numerous affluent and influential Americans before his death, has been a source of particular contention for Bondi in recent months.
For the majority of the hearing, Democrats were the ones bombarding Bondi with Epstein-related questions.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse inquired whether the FBI had discovered pictures of Trump and “half-naked young women” and whether the Justice Department had examined “suspicious activity reports” regarding Epstein’s finances.
Bondi declined to answer.
Dick Durbin asked about claims that the Justice Department had flagged anything in its Epstein documents related to Trump to the president.
“I’m not going to discuss anything about that with you, senator,” Bondi replied.
The Attorney General was questioned as to why her department now states that there is no list of Epstein’s clients after she previously claimed to have that information on her desk.
Bondi responded by citing the department’s previous finding that there was no evidence of conspiracy or a cover-up surrounding the investigation.
The questions still swirling around the Epstein investigation have been a rare source of bipartisan interest, with some Republicans joining Democrats to call for more transparency. It took a while, but this Senate hearing finally gave some indication of that.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana recounted recent comments by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that Epstein was “the greatest blackmailer ever”.
The Louisiana senator suggested Lutnick, who owned a home near Epstein in Palm Beach Florida, should testify before Congress and speak to the FBI.
Bondi continued her Epstein dance, saying it was up to Lutnick and FBI Director Kash Patel to decide if a meeting was necessary.
While Democrats focused on what they perceive as the unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department under Trump, most Republican senators were more interested in revisiting issues from the Biden presidency, or even earlier administrations.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley spent a significant portion of the hearings interjecting on how Democrats had, in his opinion, obstructed investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham criticized the FBI’s Russia investigation following the 2016 presidential election. Ted Cruz of Texas focused on protests outside the homes of conservative Supreme Court justices in the wake of their 2021 decision overturning abortion rights.
Eric Schmidt of Missouri checked off a veritable bingo card of right-wing grievances directed at the Justice Department.
Bondi, for her part, wholeheartedly agreed with the Republican chorus.
As the five-hour hearing finally concluded, the event resembled a partisan house of mirrors, with each side accusing the other of political weaponization and partisan prosecutions.
“The Department of Justice is supposed to be the nation’s guardian of fairness and the rule of law,” Senator Alex Padilla said during his questioning. “When the public trust breaks down, then justice itself is at risk.”
It is the kind of comment that both Republicans and Democrats on the committee could agree with, before casting the other side as the source of the nation’s ills.
With the shutdown about to enter its second week, Trump says some furloughed workers “don’t deserve to be taken care of”.
There were delays at a number of US airports as officials said the government shutdown is affecting air traffic control staffing.
The numbers are the lowest since 1970, as Trump continues his crackdown on immigration to the US.
One passenger was trapped under the aircraft and had to be rescued with the help of passing drivers who lifted the wreckage.
The US Attorney General was grilled on the Jeffrey Epstein files and the prosecution of President Donald Trump’s “enemies”.
“`