By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, ERIC TUCKER and STEPHEN GROVES, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyer Common Pam Bondi defended herself towards Democratic criticism that she had weaponized the Justice Division at a Tuesday congressional listening to the place she was set to face powerful questions over the political stress on the legislation enforcement company to pursue President Donald Trump’s perceived foes.
Throughout her opening remarks, Bondi echoed conservative claims that President Joe Biden’s Justice Division, which introduced two felony circumstances towards Trump, was the one which weaponized the legislation enforcement company though a few of its most high-profile probes involved the Democratic president and his son. Bondi pointed to revelations from a day earlier that the FBI had analyzed telephone data of a number of Republican lawmakers as a part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to undo the outcomes of his election loss to Biden in 2020.
“They had been taking part in politics with legislation enforcement powers and can go down as a historic betrayal of public belief,” Bondi stated. “That is the type of conduct that shatters the American folks’s religion in our legislation enforcement system. We’ll work to earn that again each single day.”
The testimony earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee comes simply forward of former FBI Director James Comey’s first court docket look following an indictment that has deepened considerations that the division is getting used to hunt vengeance towards the Republican president’s political opponents. It additionally comes as federal legislation enforcement officers surge into a number of cities throughout the U.S. to fight crime and implement immigration legal guidelines.
The listening to is prone to cut up alongside deeply partisan traces, with Republicans anticipated to laud the Justice Division’s deal with confronting violent crime and reversing Biden-era priorities. Democrats, in contrast, are poised to grill Bondi a few turbulent eight-month tenure that, apart from politically charged investigations, has additionally been outlined by mass firings and resignations of skilled prosecutors, together with some who investigated Trump, resisted Trump administration stress or just served in senior roles within the prior administration.
Because the listening to opened, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the committee’s Republican chairman, praised Bondi for “getting powerful on criminals” and her efforts to scrutinize what conservatives have alleged was the concentrating on of conservatives by the Biden Justice Division.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s high Democrat, lamented the surge of tons of of profession officers with a mixed 1000’s of years of legislation enforcement expertise. Durbin advised Bondi that her actions on the Justice Division, together with the diversion of brokers to deal with immigration enforcement, are making America much less protected.
“What has taken place since January twentieth, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil,” Durbin stated of the president who resigned to keep away from being impeached in reference to the Watergate scandal. “That is your legacy, Lawyer Common Bondi. In eight brief months, you basically reworked the Justice Division and left an unlimited stain in American historical past. It’s going to take many years to get well.”
Bondi’s look is her first earlier than the panel since her affirmation listening to final January, when she pledged to not play politics with the Justice Division — a promise Democrats are prone to pounce on as they press the lawyer common on whether or not she will stand up to stress from a president publicly calling to cost his perceived enemies.
Bondi and different Republican allies have stated the Biden administration, which introduced two felony circumstances towards Trump, was the one which weaponized the division though a few of its most high-profile probes involved the Democratic president and his son.
The Comey indictment is prone to take heart stage on the listening to. The U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Virginia that introduced the case had expressed reservations in regards to the energy of proof, and the Trump administration needed to race to put in a brand new prosecutor to safe the costs after the skilled chief of that workplace resigned days earlier beneath stress.
Different inquiries are prone to come up as properly.
The Justice Division beneath Bondi has opened felony investigations into different vocal critics of the president, together with Democratic U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, in addition to New York Lawyer Common Letitia James and Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor and present mayoral candidate. They’ve all denied wrongdoing, as has Comey, and have slammed the investigations as politically motivated.
Bondi is prone to tout the Justice Division’s efforts to deal with violent crime by surging federal legislation enforcement in Washington and now Memphis, Tennessee. Republican lawmakers who make up nearly all of the committee may also doubtless spotlight the division’s deal with unlawful immigration and dismantling Mexican cartels answerable for smuggling medication into American communities.
The lawyer common may face questions in regards to the Justice Division’s dealing with of investigative recordsdata associated to the Jeffrey Epstein intercourse trafficking investigation. The rich New York financier’s case has dogged the division since its resolution in July to not publicly launch any extra recordsdata in its possession after elevating the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists.
However even within the face of intense conservative outrage, Bondi maintained the robust public assist of the president.
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