Senate Confirms Pam Bondi as Attorney General

President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Pamela Bondi, testifies before the Senate Committee on Judiciary on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 15, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Senate voted on Feb. 4 to confirm former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Justice.

The 54-46 vote came a week after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance her nomination. Prior to the full chamber’s vote, the committee held contentious hearings with Bondi and Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI.

Both Patel and Bondi, a former adviser to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, fielded questions about whether they would be able to maintain a level of independence from the White House.

Trump has also chosen his attorneys to serve in key positions under Bondi in the DOJ.

In November 2024, he selected Todd Blanche to serve as deputy attorney general, D. John Sauer as solicitor general, and Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general.

In announcing Bondi’s nomination, then-President-elect Trump said on the social media platform Truth Social: “For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans—Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Bondi also received attention for comments she made on Fox News in 2023, when she said: “When Republicans take back the White House ... the Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted—the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated.”

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.

Trump has also tapped Harmeet Dhillon, one of his former campaign advisers, to lead the department’s civil rights division and Gail Slater to head the antitrust division. The Senate has not voted on their confirmations.

Bondi will be entering a DOJ that is already defending the administration from numerous lawsuits and facing scrutiny over its responses to the Biden administration’s investigations.

On the day of the Senate’s vote, a group of anonymous FBI employees filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging it violated their constitutional rights by gathering and potentially releasing information on employees who partook in investigations surrounding the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and the Trump classified documents case.

The lawsuit followed a Jan. 31 request by Bove, acting deputy attorney general, that the FBI provide names of bureau personnel involved with the Jan. 6 cases. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs said employees were directed to fill out a survey that identified their specific role in those cases.

In a memo to Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, according to a letter by Senate Judiciary Democrats, Bove said he doesn’t have confidence that the employees involved in the investigations against Trump could be entrusted with carrying out the current administration’s policies.

“I do not believe the current leadership of the Justice Department can trust these FBI employees to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully,” Bove wrote.

DOJ officials did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, said in his confirmation hearing last week that “there will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI should I be confirmed as the FBI director.”

Senators pressed both him and Bondi on a list Patel made of “deep state actors” within the executive branch.

During her confirmation hearing, Bondi said: “There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.