Watch Live: Pam Bondi faces senators at confirmation hearing for attorney general
Washington — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who represented President-elect Donald Trump during his first impeachment, is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday as she seeks confirmation to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Bondi sought to allay the concerns of Democrats who said they feared Trump and his allies would use the Justice Department to target their political enemies.
“There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi said, adding that she believes prosecutors unfairly targeted Trump for the last four years.
“America will have one tier of justice for all,” Bondi said in her opening statement. She told the committee that the “partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone” with her at the helm.
In response to Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, Bondi said she “accept[s] the results” of the 2020 election but declined to say outright that President Biden won. She also said she would advise Trump on pardons for Jan. 6 defendants on a “case-by-case” basis.
(The committee is currently taking a break for lunch, and the hearing will resume at 12:25 p.m. ET.)
Bondi’s confirmation hearing
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Trump selected Bondi to be his nominee for U.S. attorney general after his first pick, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration. Bondi made history in 2010 when she became the first woman to serve as Florida’s attorney general, a role she held for two terms.
“If confirmed as the next attorney general of the United States, my overriding objective will be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals,” Bondi said in her opening statement.
Republicans on the committee have so far focused on Bondi’s decades of crimefighting experience as a local prosecutor, and later as Florida attorney general. They claimed the Justice Department has been “weaponized” in recent years for political means.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, noted Bondi’s experience, but said it is Trump who has vowed to use the Justice Department to target his political enemies. Durbin said he wants assurances that Bondi would keep the Justice Department independent, and would be willing to say “no” to Trump.
Bondi said her time as a local prosecutor framed her goals for the Justice Department, which she described as “getting back to the basics” of combating crime and reducing recidivism.
“I got to know and still keep in touch with many victims and their families from when I was a prosecutor,” Bondi said.
She recalled Florida parents giving her photos of their children who died from opioid abuse, and said she planned to focus on nationwide fentanyl addiction.
“Fentanyl is raging throughout our country and I will do everything I can to fight that,” Bondi said.
Durbin asked Bondi if she accepted that Trump lost the election in 2020, a fact that he and many of his prominent supporters have not publicly acknowledged. Bondi stopped short of doing so Wednesday.
“There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024,” Bondi said.
Durbin asked if Bondi would support pardons for people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Bondi said, if asked, she would review cases, but added, “I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country.”
Bondi was also asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, about the reauthorization of Section 702, a government tool that allows for intelligence collection and has come under fire from some members of the Republican Party in Congress. She said she would take a look at it and it is a “very important tool.”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, asked Bondi if she would “be willing to resign if ordered to do something improper.”
“Senator, I wouldn’t work at a law firm, I wouldn’t be a prosecutor, I wouldn’t be attorney general if anyone asked me to do something improper and I felt I had to carry that out, of course I would not do that,” Bondi said. “That’s one of the main things you learn as a young prosecutor, is to do the right thing.”
contributed to this report.