At Oversight Hearing, AG Bondi Responds to Questions With Attacks Instead of Answers

At a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi hurled insults at Democrats in response to their questions about the stark politicization of the Department of Justice (DOJ) since she took office.

Asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) if the Jeffery Epstein investigation files held by the FBI included incriminating photos of President Donald Trump with half-naked young women, Bondi didn’t say no, choosing to castigate the senator instead. 

“Y’know Senator Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks once again trying to slander President Trump left and right, when you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s confidants — I believe, I could be wrong, correct me — Reid Hoffman, who was with Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions” she said. “And the senator sitting right next to you tried to block the flight logs from being released, yet you’re grilling me on President Trump and some photograph with Epstein? C’mon.”

When Whitehouse repeated his question, Bondi said nothing in response. 

When Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) inquired about a dropped DOJ antitrust merger challenge and Bondi’s conversations with the lobbying firm — her former employer — pushing for it, she deflected by saying he lied about his military service. 

“How dare you,” Bondi inveighed. “Do not challenge my integrity, I have abided by every ethic [sic] standard.”

After Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked Bondi if she approved of shutting down the investigation into Trump “Border Czar” Tom Homan, who was caught on camera accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents last year, Bondi criticized Hirono’s appearance at a demonstration. 

“You were also on video outside the White House, protesting with a group called Casa, where antifa members were,” Bondi said. “Does that mean you’re a member of antifa?”

Democrats used the hearing to draw attention to DOJ’s dramatic politicization under Trump, including working to prosecute his partisan opponents.

“The Attorney General has systemically weaponized our nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency to protect President Trump and his allies and attack his opponents and the American people,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking Democrat on the panel.

And whenever Bondi didn’t have a personalized philippic to fling, she castigated Democrats for voting “to shut down the government.” 

Ahead of the hearing, 282 former DOJ career employees signed a public letter sounding an “alarm about this administration’s degradation of DOJ’s vital work, and its assault on the public servants who do it.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) opened the hearing by leveling a series of accusations against previous leadership in the DOJ and FBI. His goal was to boost the GOP’s ongoing claim that federal law enforcement agencies were, in fact, first weaponized against Trump and his supporters following investigations into Trump’s attempt to remain in office after losing the 2020 election. 

Durbin countered that the weaponization truly began under Bondi, noting how hundreds of DOJ attorneys have been fired or left, including roughly 75% of the civil rights division. The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team were also disbanded, Durbin noted. Former President Joe Biden, he added, kept Trump’s FBI Director, Christopher Wray, and unlike Trump, never demanded on social media the prosecution of his political opponents. 

Durbin also highlighted the DOJ’s hiring or attempted appointment of right-wing extremists and partisans, like the two U.S. attorneys that federal courts have ruled to be unlawfully exceeding their tenures as interim appointees. 

“Alina Habba, who said she would use her position to, quote, ‘turn New Jersey red,’ and Sigal Chattah, who once said that a Black political opponent, quote, ‘should be hanging from an [f—ing] crane,’” Durbin said. 

Durbin excoriated Trump’s recent statements at an unprecedented gathering of all the military’s generals and admirals, where he floated the idea of using American cities as training grounds and directed them to target an “enemy from within.”

“Chicago is not the enemy, our fellow Americans are not the enemy,” Durbin said. 

In response, Bondi touted the administration’s law enforcement tactics, claiming that the widespread deployment of federal agents and National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C. was “incredibly successful,” and would be expanded to other cities, including Chicago. 

Neutral observers have noted that, at most, those actions led to a 2% increase in arrests in the District, which was already enjoying a significant drop in crime before the federal crackdown. 

Durbin asked Bondi what legal justification the administration had for deploying the National Guard to Chicago, which is now being challenged in court. Bondi ignored the question to grandstand once more.

“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” Bondi said. 

In the face of Bondi’s repeated stonewalling, Durbin leveled a warning. 

“Eventually, you’re going to have to answer for your conduct in this,” he said. “You won’t do it today, but one day you will.”