WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, faced tough questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday regarding her loyalty to Trump, who has pledged to use the Department of Justice to target his perceived political enemies
Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, will likely be one of the most closely watched Cabinet members as Democrats express concerns that Trump may attempt to bend the DOJ to his will.
In her opening statement, she pledged to protect the First Amendment rights of free speech and religion, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and to reform the beleaguered federal Bureau of Prisons.
“If confirmed as United States Attorney General, my overriding objective would be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously enforcing the law,” she said. “That requires getting back to basics — prosecuting violent crime and gang activity, stopping child predators and drug traffickers, protecting our nation from terrorists and other foreign threats, and addressing the overwhelming crisis at the Border.”
Senate hearings are scheduled this week for Trump’s picks for more than a dozen top administrative positions.
Bondi: Trump was “targeted” by DOJ investigations
Bondi pledged that she would not “politicize” the Justice Department if confirmed as the country’s chief federal law enforcement officer.
The statements echoed Trump’s claims that the Justice Department had been weaponized against him and came as Democrats expressed concern that the president-elect will look to use the agency’s law enforcement powers to exact retribution against his adversaries, including the investigators who investigated him.
“They targeted Donald Trump,” Bondi said. “They went after him — actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him.” She added: “If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”
The department, she later said, “had been weaponized for years and years and years, and it’s got to stop.”
Democrats focused their questions on whether Bondi would be prepared to say “no” to Trump if asked to do something unethical or illegal. She sought to allay those concerns by saying that her only client was the American people, not the president. When asked by Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, what she would do if her career prosecutors recommended bringing a criminal case but the White House said no, she did not answer directly but said: “If I thought that that would happen, I would not be sitting here today.”
Republicans, by contrast, eagerly welcomed her as a course correction to a Justice Department they believe has pursued an overly liberal agenda and unfairly pursued Trump through investigations and a special counsel appointment resulting in two indictments.
“If confirmed, I will work to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice — and each of its components,” Bondi said in her opening remarks. “Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end. America must have one tier of justice for all.”
Still, Bondi would not answer whether she would try to prosecute Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump with federal crimes in two separate cases. Smith has since abandoned the cases, attributing this to a Justice Department policy not to prosecute sitting presidents.
The attorney general hopeful also evaded a question about whether she agrees with Trump’s characterization of the Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages” and “patriots.” Asked by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Bondi said she was not familiar with those comments.
In addition, Bondi didn’t directly answer when asked whether Trump lost the 2020 election to Democratic current President Joe Biden. Instead, she just said that Biden is the president.
Who is Pam Bondi?
Bondi was a prosecutor for nearly two decades in the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office before becoming Florida’s first female attorney general in 2010.
She served as Florida’s attorney general for eight years. She campaigned for the state’s top legal office by challenging then-President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and calling for her state to adopt Arizona’s controversial “show me your papers” immigration law.
As attorney general in Florida from 2011 to 2019, Bondi was vocal on human trafficking issues and urged tightening state laws against traffickers. After that, she worked as a lobbyist for Ballard Partners.
Bondi represented KGL Investment Company KSCC, a Kuwaiti firm also known as KGLI. She lobbied the White House, National Security Council, State Department and Congress on immigration policy, human rights and economic sanctions issues, the Associated Press reported.
Sources tell NewsNation that Bondi is trusted by Trump and she spends time at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Bondi was a senior adviser on Trump’s first impeachment defense team when he was accused in 2020 of abuse of power for allegedly pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals. Trump was ultimately not convicted.
NewsNation correspondent Brooke Shafer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.