By Steve Neavling
Attorney General Pam Bondi faced sharp criticism in a tense congressional hearing Tuesday as Democrats accused her of turning the Justice Department into a political weapon to punish President Donald Trump’s opponents.
Bondi repeatedly refused to answer questions about politically charged investigations, the firings of career prosecutors, and the department’s independence, the Associated Press reports. Instead, she blamed the Biden administration for “playing politics with law enforcement powers,” calling it “a historic betrayal of public trust.”
“This is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people’s faith in our law enforcement system,” Bondi said. “We will work to earn that back every single day.”
Republicans defended her, arguing she inherited a department corrupted under President Joe Biden, citing reports that the FBI had analyzed Republican lawmakers’ phone records.
“This is an outrage, an unconstitutional breach,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee’s Republican chairman.
Democrats countered that Bondi had eroded the department’s independence and credibility.
“What has taken place since January 20th, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. “In eight short months, you fundamentally transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain in American history.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar pressed Bondi on her earlier promise not to politicize the department. Bondi said she had kept that pledge.
“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,” she said. “And that is what we are doing.”
Bondi, often combative, set the tone early by snapping at Durbin and deflecting his questions with partisan jabs about crime in Chicago and Democratic-led shutdowns.
