Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general pick, faces confirmation hearing : NPR

We’re following the affirmation hearings for the incoming Trump administration. See our full politics protection, and observe NPR’s Trump’s Phrases podcast or join our Politics e-newsletter to remain updated.

Who: Pamela Bondi

Nominated for: legal professional common

You would possibly know her from: She served as Florida’s legal professional common for eight years, and later served as a private legal professional for then-President Trump throughout his first impeachment trial within the U.S. Senate.

• She publicly pushed false claims of fraud within the 2020 election.
• She says Trump was unfairly prosecuted after leaving workplace in 2021.
• She has known as people who investigated and prosecuted Trump members of “the deep state” and stated they are going to face prosecution.

What does this position do? The legal professional common leads the Justice Division and oversees the greater than 100,000 individuals who work for it and its element businesses, together with the FBI.

Here is what occurred on the listening to

Bondi pledged to be impartial because the nation’s prime prosecutor, as she confronted sharp questions from Democrats about her private ties to Trump and previous statements on election fraud and political retribution.

Throughout her Senate affirmation listening to Wednesday, Bondi repeatedly informed senators that politics wouldn’t play a job in her selections as chief of the Justice Division.

“Each case will likely be prosecuted primarily based on the details and the regulation that’s utilized in good religion — interval. Politics have gotten to be taken out of the system,” she stated.

However Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed Bondi on Trump’s earlier threats to focus on or prosecute his political rivals. Democrats additionally referenced examples of Trump pressuring his first-term attorneys common to take — or not take — sure actions.

“The president-elect made it clear that he values one factor above all else, and he stated it over and over: loyalty,” stated Sen. Dick Durbin, D-In poor health., the rating Democrat on the committee. “The view that the Justice Division have to be insulated from political affect and shouldn’t be weaponized towards political rivals has traditionally been bipartisan, definitely on this committee. At this significant second in historical past, that view, not Mr. Trump’s view, should prevail.”

Republicans say Biden’s Justice Division is corrupt

Bondi and Republican senators countered that they consider the division has been weaponized towards Trump, citing the varied authorized circumstances towards him.

Justice Division prosecutors wound down the 2 federal legal circumstances towards Trump after he gained the 2024 election, following longstanding division precedent. In a report on the federal government’s election interference case launched this week, particular counsel Jack Smith stated the proof towards Trump would have led to his conviction at trial — if not for his election victory that led to expenses being dropped.

“They focused Donald Trump,” Bondi stated. “They went after him, truly, beginning again in 2016 they focused his marketing campaign. They’ve launched numerous investigations towards him. That won’t be the case. If I’m legal professional common, I can’t politicize that workplace. I can’t goal folks merely due to their political affiliation.”

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican committee chair, charged that “by each metric, the Biden-Harris Justice Division conduct has didn’t stay as much as our nation’s beliefs.”

“Ms. Bondi, must you be confirmed, the actions you are taking to alter the division’s course have to be for accountability,” Grassley stated.

Throughout her listening to, she stated she is going to “battle day-after-day to revive confidence” within the Justice Division, and that her “overriding goal will likely be to return the Justice Division to its core mission of holding People secure and vigorously prosecuting criminals.”

A former two-term legal professional common for the state of Florida, Bondi is predicted to obtain broad assist from Republicans, who maintain the Senate majority.

Bondi was Trump’s second alternative for legal professional common. His first decide, former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration amid a backlash over allegations of sexual misconduct and unlawful drug use. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.

Bondi and Democrats conflict over false election claims

After the 2020 election, Bondi backed Trump’s false claims that widespread election fraud had “stolen” his victory.

On Wednesday, Durbin requested Bondi if she was “ready to say as we speak, below oath, with out reservation, that Donald Trump misplaced the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?”

Bondi affirmed that Biden is the president, however added that she “noticed many issues” as a Trump marketing campaign surrogate working in Pennsylvania.

“Nobody from both aspect of the aisle ought to need there to be any points with election integrity in our nation,” Bondi stated. “We must always all need our elections to be free and truthful and the foundations and the legal guidelines to be adopted.”

Durbin responded that the query “deserves a sure or no.”

“I believe the size of your reply is a sign that you just weren’t ready to reply sure,” Durbin stated.

Democrats returned to the 2020 election all through the listening to, with Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., asking Bondi whether or not she would “retract” her earlier statements that Trump gained Pennsylvania in 2020.

When Padilla pushed her for a yes-or-no reply, Bondi stated she was “not going to be bullied.”

Republicans reward Bondi’s {qualifications}

In her opening assertion, Bondi highlighted her expertise as a state prosecutor and her efforts preventing opioid producers as Florida legal professional common.

After leaving workplace, Bondi served as a private legal professional for Trump and labored as a lobbyist for company purchasers, together with Amazon and Uber, and lobbied on behalf of the federal government of Qatar.

On Wednesday, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz known as Bondi “clearly certified for this place.” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., stated her “credentials communicate for themselves.”

If confirmed, Bondi will lead the Justice Division and wield the huge powers that include it. She will likely be liable for implementing federal legal guidelines, together with voting and civil rights legal guidelines, in addition to defending the Trump administration’s insurance policies in courtroom.

The job of legal professional common is among the most vital in any administration, however it’s considered as having specific significance in Trump’s second time period due to his tumultuous relationship with the division up to now.

“The prosecutors will likely be prosecuted”

Bondi has been a fierce defender of President-elect Donald Trump. Above: In Might 2024, throughout Trump’s hush cash trial in New York, Bondi spoke outdoors the courthouse to defend Trump.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures North America

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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures North America

A lot of Trump’s first presidency happened within the shadow of Justice Division particular counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into attainable ties between Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign and Russia.

After leaving workplace, Trump confronted 4 legal prosecutions, together with two federal circumstances introduced by particular counsel Smith into Trump’s dealing with of labeled paperwork and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump was not charged within the Mueller investigation, and neither of the Smith circumstances ever made it to trial.

Nonetheless, Trump has claimed that the Justice Division was weaponized towards him, and through the 2024 marketing campaign he repeatedly talked about searching for vengeance towards his perceived political enemies, together with on the division.

Bondi has echoed that view in a few of her personal public statements.

“The Division of Justice, the prosecutors will likely be prosecuted. The dangerous ones,” she stated on Fox Information in 2023. “The investigators will likely be investigated as a result of the deep state, final time period for President Trump, they had been hiding within the shadows however now they’ve a highlight on them they usually can all be investigated.”

These types of feedback have fueled considerations amongst Democrats that Bondi will use the division’s prosecutorial powers to pursue Trump’s acknowledged want for vengeance.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, requested Bondi Wednesday whether or not she thought of Smith a type of “dangerous prosecutors.”

A number of of Trump’s private attorneys are up for prime jobs

If confirmed, Bondi would enter the job with deep ties in Trump world, again to when she spoke on his behalf on the 2016 Republican Nationwide Conference. Extra lately, she led the authorized arm of the America First Coverage Institute, a assume tank led by former members of Trump’s first administration.

Bondi is just not the one former private legal professional of Trump’s to be tapped for a prime job on the Justice Division.

Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who’ve represented Trump in state and federal courtroom, have been picked for deputy legal professional common and one other senior put up, respectively, whereas former Missouri Solicitor Common D. John Sauer, who represented Trump earlier than the Supreme Court docket, has been picked as solicitor common for the incoming administration.