Bondi dodges questions as she clashes with Democrats over claims she's
weaponized Justice Department
[October 08, 2025]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, ERIC TUCKER and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi repeatedly deflected
questions as she sought during a combative congressional hearing on
Tuesday to defend herself against growing criticism that she's turning
the law enforcement agency into a weapon to seek vengeance against
President Donald Trump’s political opponents.
Democrats sought to use the hearing, coming on the heels of the
indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, to warn of what they view
as the politicization of a department that has long prided itself on
remaining independent from the White House.
Bondi brushed aside with seeming disdain questions about her tumultuous
tenure, flatly refusing to answer time and again as Democrats pressed
her on politically charged investigations, the firings of career
prosecutors and other matters. Her refusal to engage on the questions
meant little if any fresh insight was offered about her actions and
decisions, with Bondi instead opting to respond to Democrats' attacks by
echoing conservative claims that President Joe Biden's Justice
Department — which brought two criminal cases against Trump — was the
one that had been weaponized.
“They were playing politics with law enforcement powers and will go down
as a historic betrayal of public trust,” Bondi said of the Biden Justice
Department. “This is the kind of conduct that shatters the American
people’s faith in our law enforcement system. We will work to earn that
back every single day.”
The hearing split early along deeply partisan lines, with Republicans
repeatedly leaping to her defense to highlight the criminal cases
against the president that they say show the institution she inherited
was deeply politicized. They pointed to revelations from a day earlier
that the FBI had analyzed phone records of several Republican lawmakers
as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020
election loss to Biden, a Democrat.
“This is an outrage, an unconstitutional breach and ought to be
immediately addressed by you and Director Patel,” Sen. Chuck Grassley,
the Republican chairman of the committee, told Bondi, referring to FBI
Director Kash Patel.
Democrats, meanwhile, accused Bondi of destroying the department's
credibility and eroding its longstanding independence from the White
House as the Republican president publicly calls for the prosecution of
his political foes.
“What has taken place since January 20th, 2025, would make even
President Nixon recoil,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat
on the committee, said of the president who resigned to avoid being
impeached in connection with the Watergate scandal. “This is your
legacy, Attorney General Bondi. In eight short months, you fundamentally
transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain in
American history. It will take decades to recover.”
Democrats press Bondi on her pledge not to play politics
The hearing marked Bondi's first before the panel since her confirmation
hearing last January, when she pledged to not play politics with the
Justice Department — a promise Democrats pounced on as they pressed the
attorney general on whether she can withstand political pressure from
the White House.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, reminded Bondi of that
commitment and asked her if she thought she had upheld it. Bondi replied
that she believed she absolutely had.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi is sworn in before a Senate Judiciary
Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday,
Oct. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“I pledged that I would end the weaponization also of the Justice
Department and that America would once again have a one tier system
of justice for all,” Bondi said. “And that is what we are doing.”
Bondi set the tone for the hearing at the outset, repeatedly
snapping with a raised voice at Durbin and deflecting questions from
him by pointing to the murder rate in Chicago and asserting that
lawmakers from his party were responsible for shutting the
government down.
“You’re sitting here grilling me, and they’re on their way to
Chicago to keep your state safe,” Bondi said, referring to Patel and
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Madam Attorney General,” Durbin replied, “it’s my job to grill
you.”
Bondi refuses to answer questions about Comey and other matters
She refused repeatedly to discuss matters, including a bribery
investigation into Trump border czar Tom Homan that was shuttered
under the Trump administration. That drew the ire of Sen. Sheldon
Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, who accused Bondi of responding
with “far-right internet talking points.”
She also declined to say whether she talked to the president about
the case against Comey, who was charged last month with lying to the
Senate Judiciary Committee when he said he had not authorized anyone
else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about a
particular investigation. His indictment came just days after Trump
appeared to publicly implore her on social media to take that action
against him and other perceived political enemies.
“This is supposed to be an oversight hearing in which members of
Congress can get serious answer to serious questions about the
coverup of corruption, about the prosecution of the president’s
enemies," Sen. Adam Schiff of California, a Democrat from
California, said as Bondi repeatedly interrupted him. "And when will
it be that the members of this committee on a bipartisan basis
demand answers to those questions and refuse to accept personal
slander as an answer to those questions?”
Comey is set to make his first court appearance on Wednesday in the
case, which was brought despite career prosecutors' reservations
about the strength of evidence, after the Trump administration raced
install a new prosecutor to secure the charges following the
resignation under pressure of the experienced leader of that office.
The Justice Department under Bondi has opened criminal
investigations into other vocal critics of the president, including
Schiff on accusations of mortgage fraud, New York Attorney General
Letitia James and Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor and
current mayoral candidate. They have all denied wrongdoing, as has
Comey, and have slammed the investigations as politically motivated.
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