Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi fielded questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 15 as part of her confirmation process to serve as the next attorney general of the United States.
During the hearing, both sides of the aisle focused on concerns about the weaponization of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which Bondi pledged not to engage in.
Democrats tended to focus on Bondi’s ties with President-elect Donald Trump and her willingness to maintain the DOJ’s independence from the White House. She also encountered questions about illegal immigration, national security, and FISA warrants.
Weaponization of DOJ
Bondi repeatedly expressed opposition to what has been described as the weaponization of the DOJ and received multiple questions raising concern about the department’s ability to act independently of political influence.At the beginning of the hearing, committee ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Bondi that her competence and experience weren’t in question, but rather her “ability to say no” to Trump.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Kennedy (R-La.) criticized the Biden administration’s DOJ for its prosecution of Trump by former special counsel Jack Smith.
Kennedy said that deciding to prosecute Trump “broke the seal.” He warned that America was headed down a road in which prosecutors would seek to prosecute President Joe Biden’s inner circle for conspiring to conceal his mental decline.
“You’ve got to fix it,” Kennedy told Bondi.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked Bondi whether that would include Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, or former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who led the House Jan. 6 Committee.
“No one has been prejudged, nor will anyone be prejudged if I am confirmed,” Bondi responded.
She later told Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) that “no one will be prosecuted [or] investigated because they are a political opponent.”
“That’s what we’ve seen for the last four years in this administration,” she said.
“Going after parents at a school board meeting has got to stop,” she said.
She told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) she would look into an FBI memo about traditionalist Catholics.
Surveillance
As an example of a “bad lawyer” within the DOJ, Bondi offered former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to fabricating evidence against Trump during the investigation into alleged Russian collusion—specifically an email connected to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application.
Referring to that investigation, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Bondi, “When it comes to Crossfire Hurricane, are those days over if you’re attorney general?”
Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for an FBI investigation into links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government that was later found to be without basis.
“Absolutely,” she responded.
Trump has called for reforming FISA courts as part of his plan to “dismantle the deep state.”
Bondi told Graham she would look at reauthorization, saying FISA is “a very important tool.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) expressed concern about the federal government intercepting Americans’ conversations without a warrant.
Trump and the 2020 Presidential Election
Bondi, who served as a Trump 2020 campaign adviser, was asked by multiple senators whether Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Her responses included stating that Biden is the current president and that there was a peaceful transfer of power.“I accept the results. I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is President of the United States,” she told Durbin. “But what I can tell you is what I saw firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the campaign.”
She added that she “saw many things” and that “no one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity.”
When Hirono spoke, she accused Bondi of being unable to say who won the 2020 presidential election. Bondi gestured toward the mic but didn’t offer any words in response.
“It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact,” Hirono said.
Bondi told Hirono before that exchange that Biden was the president.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) pressed Bondi multiple times for a yes or no answer on whether she had evidence of election fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election.
Bondi didn’t provide a yes or no answer but attempted to give statements multiple times before being interrupted by Padilla.
While responding, Bondi said she traveled to Pennsylvania but didn’t say whether she would retract her statement—prompting Padilla to demand a yes or no answer.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked Bondi whether she could tell Trump that he lost the 2020 election.
Kash Patel
Multiple senators asked Bondi about Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, saying he had a purported enemies list. They seemed to be referring to a group of so-called deep state members Patel listed in his book “Government Gangsters.”Bondi said she wasn’t familiar with the comments but clarified that he would serve under her and follow the rule of law as her subordinate.
“There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice,” she told Whitehouse.
Bondi also told Whitehouse that she believed Patel was “the right person at this time for this job” while underscoring his experience as an attorney and within the intelligence community.
Patel, on Jan. 15, reposted on social media a video of Bondi praising him.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), citing the so-called enemies list, told Bondi that she should be able to say that Patel shouldn’t be FBI director.
Jan. 6 Pardons
As attorney general, Bondi will be able to advise Trump on how he could exercise his pardon power. In recent months, questions have arisen as to whether Trump will pardon many individuals charged in connection to the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.Blumenthal told Bondi that as the people’s lawyer, she would have to be able to say that “January 6th insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned.”
Durbin asked about pardoning defendants convicted of violent assaults on police officers.
In response, Bondi said: “I have not seen any of those files. ... If confirmed and if asked to advise the president, I will look at each and every file.”
She added that she condemned “any violence” against a law enforcement officer.
Bondi also told Durbin she would advise on a “case by case basis.”
When asked by Schiff, she declined to say whether she would caution Trump against a blanket pardon.
“I have not looked at any of those files,” she said as part of her answer.
Immigration
During the hearing, Bondi fielded multiple questions from Democrats and Republicans about immigration. Graham, for example, asked about the illegal immigrant who was convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Bondi said Americans paid the price for illegal immigrant criminals entering the country and indicated Riley’s killer shouldn’t have been in the United States.
During her exchange with Padilla, he pressed her on birthright citizenship, which is the idea that the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all children born in the United States, including those born to illegal immigrant parents.
When Padilla asked Bondi what the citizenship clause said, she responded, “I’m not here to do your homework and study for you.”
Padilla went on to ask whether Bondi would defend birthright citizenship, to which she said she would study the issue. In response, Padilla seemed incredulous and stated that her need to study the 14th Amendment didn’t help him boost his confidence in her ability to serve as attorney general.
Hirono also asked Bondi about Trump’s 2023 comment about illegal immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country.”
While Bondi said she wasn’t aware of those remarks, she later said that “we are a nation made up of immigrants.”
“Do I believe immigrants are poisoning our country? No,” she said.
