Pam Bondi Faces Fire in Senate Hearing as DOJ’s Independence Comes Under Scrutiny

Attorney General Pam Bondi walked into Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing ready for a fight, and she got one.

In her first grilling since the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, Bondi faced a barrage of questions from Democrats accusing her of turning the Department of Justice into a political tool for Donald Trump. Republicans, meanwhile, rallied behind her pledge to “restore law and order” and end what she called the “weaponisation of justice.”

Bondi pushed back hard, saying the DOJ was finally “getting back to basics, fighting real crime.” She pointed to new federal crackdowns in Washington, D.C., and Memphis, and defended the controversial deployment of National Guard troops to cities like Chicago and Portland, blaming local leaders for “failing to keep citizens safe.”

Things got tense when senators pressed her about Comey’s indictment for alleged false statements and obstruction of Congress. Bondi refused to say whether the charges were influenced by the White House, dodging the question as a “personnel matter.”

Then came a curveball: the Jeffrey Epstein files. Bondi brushed off questions about her reversal on releasing key documents, instead accusing Democrats of taking campaign donations from Epstein-linked figures. The fireworks didn’t stop there: she also refused to discuss an old corruption inquiry into Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, saying it predated her tenure.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin didn’t hold back, calling Bondi’s DOJ “a shield for the president’s friends and a sword for his enemies.” He warned her tenure had “left an enormous stain on American history.”

Behind the drama, a letter signed by nearly 300 former DOJ employees dropped right before the hearing, accusing the administration of “taking a sledgehammer to the rule of law.”

Still, Republicans on the committee, led by Chuck Grassley, praised Bondi for “resetting the DOJ’s mission” and pushing back against what they described as years of political bias under the Biden administration.