{"id":284621,"date":"2025-10-07T19:26:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/284621\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T19:26:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:26:20","slug":"takeaways-from-attorney-general-pam-bondis-contentious-senate-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/284621\/","title":{"rendered":"Takeaways from Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s contentious Senate hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday showed the sharp divide between the left and the right on how justice in the US is being carried out.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats and Republicans repeatedly talked past one another throughout the hearing, pointing fingers across the aisle over who was to blame for weaponizing the Justice Department.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats accused Bondi of allowing President Donald Trump to direct prosecutions of his political enemies, including last month\u2019s indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.<\/a> Republicans, meanwhile, blamed the Biden Justice Department of using special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump and spy on Republicans, pointing to the release Monday of documents showing Smith\u2019s investigation obtained call records<\/a> through a court order of eight Senate Republicans.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi approached Tuesdays\u2019 hearing prepared to deflect Democratic questions on a number of topics, from the Comey prosecution and the release of the Epstein files to the deployment of National Guard troops in blue states. She also had a host of personal attacks at the ready to try to brush back her Democratic questioners.\n <\/p>\n

\n Here are takeaways from Tuesday\u2019s hearing:\n <\/p>\n

\"Attorney<\/p>\n

Bondi\u2019s strategy: Deflect and attack<\/p>\n

\n Bondi fended off questions on the investigation into accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, National Guard deployments, and investigations into Trump\u2019s political enemies, using quick-one liners to deflect and personal attacks to push back against Democrats.\n <\/p>\n

\n As senators pushed her on Trump\u2019s connections to Epstein, the attorney general repeatedly claimed that those same Democrats had connections to another alleged associate of Epstein\u2019s, LinkedIn founder\u202fReid Hoffman<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n She also questioned why Democrats hadn\u2019t raised concerns about the Epstein investigation before her term, at one point challenging senators by responding, \u201cDid you ask Merrick Garland any of this over the last four years when he sat before you?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And when Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin pushed Bondi on the legal rationale for sending National Guard troops to Durbin\u2019s state against the governor\u2019s wishes, the attorney general shot back: \u201cI wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Ranking<\/p>\n

\n She attacked several other Democrats personally.\n <\/p>\n

\n When Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal questioned Bondi over her connections to a law firm involved in a merger scrutinized by the Justice Department, Bondi went after Blumenthal for decade-old allegations<\/a> he lied about military service in Vietnam.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSenator Blumenthal, I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service,\u201d Bondi said. \u201cHow dare you? I\u2019m a career prosecutor. Don\u2019t you ever challenge my integrity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii about the closing of an investigation<\/a> into Trump\u2019s border czar Tom Homan reportedly taking $50,000 in cash<\/a> from undercover FBI agents last year, Bondi said that no credible evidence of wrongdoing was found and then shot back with a non-sequitur.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou were also on video outside the White House protesting with a group \u2026 where ANTIFA members were. Does that mean you\u2019re a member of ANTIFA?\u201d Bondi said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In less contentious exchanges, the attorney general responded to questions by criticizing Democrats for not voting to end the government shutdown.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe personnel issue that I\u2019m having right now is that all of my agents, all of my lawyers, are \u2026 working without a paycheck because your party voted to shut down the federal government,\u201d Bondi said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In one exchange during which Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse accused\u202fEmil Bove<\/a>\u202fof prosecutorial misconduct during his brief stint as principal associate deputy attorney general, Bondi stopped him with a rejoinder: \u201cTo correct you for one moment, that would be the Honorable Judge Emil J. Bove III to you.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

\n Democrats pointed to numerous examples they say show Bondi has failed to keep the Justice Department independent from the whims and wishes of the president.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi was pressed about a social media post Trump made directly urging Bondi in September to prosecute three of his political enemies, telling her, \u201cwe can\u2019t delay any longer\u201d and that not bringing criminal against several Democrats charges is \u201ckilling our reputation and credibility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Less than a week later, Comey was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia.\n <\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

\n Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, asked Bondi whether she considered the post \u201ca directive to the Justice Department.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi replied, \u201cTrump is the most transparent president in American history, and I don\u2019t think he said anything that he hasn\u2019t said for years.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Blumenthal displayed a photo of Bondi having dinner at the White House with Trump the night before Comey was indicted. She disputed his suggestion it was a small dinner but would not engage on what she had discussed with the president.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am not going to discuss any conversations I have or have not had with the President of the United States,\u201d Bondi said Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats also pressed Bondi on the firing of numerous DOJ officials, including attorneys fired for their work on January 6 cases or for refusing certain prosecutions of anti-Trump figures. She said she wouldn\u2019t discuss personnel matters.\n <\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

\n Several Republican senators pointed to the release of documents the night before Tuesday\u2019s hearing that showed the phone records of eight Republican senators and a House lawmaker were obtained<\/a> as part of the special counsel\u2019s investigation into Trump and 2020 election interference.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi called the disclosure a \u201cbetrayal of public trust.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey were playing politics with law enforcement powers and will go down as a historic betrayal of public trust,\u201d Bondi said. \u201cThis is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people\u2019s faith in our law enforcement system.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That phone records of some lawmakers were seized in the probe and were made public in court documents as Smith\u2019s investigation was ongoing. There is no indication that the Republican senators were targets of the probe.\n <\/p>\n

\n While the phone records were obtained via court order, several Republican senators suggested the actions of the Biden Justice Department were criminal and urged Bondi to investigate.\n <\/p>\n

\n GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee lamented what she described as a \u201clack of caring from my colleagues across the dais when it comes to how the DOJ under Biden was weaponized.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As Republicans and Democrats took turns questioning Bondi, the accusations of politicized justice continued to be thrown back and forth across the aisle \u2014 with both sides accusing the other of a double standard.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe double standard is clear, and the American people are waking up to the corruption and favoritism and the lawlessness at the DOJ,\u201d Hirono said of the DOJ under Bondi.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe double standard is crystal clear,\u201d Bondi responded after Hirono\u2019s time expired. \u201cYou didn\u2019t complain for four years when President Trump was being targeted by Jack Smith, by the last Justice Department, but the American people spoke loud and clear when they overwhelmingly elected him. The two-tier system of justice is over.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Attorney<\/p>\n

Republicans and Bondi defend Comey prosecution<\/p>\n

\n Bondi and a former Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee defended the indictment of Comey during Tuesday\u2019s hearing, one day before he\u2019s set to be arraigned on charges that he allegedly lied to Congress in 2020 testimony.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bondi declined to get into any specifics about the Comey charges, but she tried to defend it several times by suggesting the Alexandria, Virginia, grand jury that handed up the indictment was a liberal one.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am not going to discuss pending cases because Comey was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia by, I may point out, is one of the most liberal grand juries in the country,\u201d Bondi said when Klobuchar asked about career prosecutors finding insufficient evidence for an indictment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 during Comey\u2019s testimony raised in the indictment, ticked through a litany of grievances related to Comey\u2019s actions while FBI director and the FBI\u2019s investigation into Trump and Russia.\n <\/p>\n

\n Graham questioned Comey\u2019s testimony that he did not know about a 2016 intelligence about an alleged \u201cClinton plan\u201d to tie Trump to Russia during the 2016 campaign. (Former special counsel John Durham found that the emails cited in the intelligence appeared to be faked<\/a>, according to an annex to his report released earlier this year.)\n <\/p>\n

\n Comey\u2019s response to Graham about that intelligence was included in the charges DOJ sought against Comey, but the grand jury rejected that count.\n <\/p>\n

\n Graham went after Comey\u2019s larger handling of the FBI\u2019s Russia investigation in 2016 and 2017, ticking through his longstanding criticism of the Crossfire Hurricane probe.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhy are we looking at Comey? Give me a break,\u201d Graham said with exasperation. \u201cWhy are we looking at Comey? Because he ran an FBI and personally knew about exculpatory information and let it slide.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday showed the sharp divide between the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":284622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-284621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115334531532149444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}