Bondi accused Democrats of “smearing” President Donald Trump. Sen. Dick Durbin complained about the “refusal to answer the most basic questions.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi grilled Jeffrey Epstein
Attorney General Pam Bondi submitted questions from senators regarding the Jeffrey Epstein file.
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Pam Bondi took on Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 7, refusing to answer their questions and launch personal attacks against some of them when they accused her of stonewalling.
She was received very differently by Republicans. Republicans praised Bondi throughout the marathon hearing, saying he pledged to help President Donald Trump rid the Justice Department of partisan politics, reduce crime and deport the country’s immigrants illegally.
“I entered office with two primary goals: to end the weaponization of justice and return the department to its core mission of fighting violent crime,” Bondi said. “There is more work to do, but over the last eight months I believe we have made significant progress towards those objectives.”
But one by one, Democrats accused the nation’s top law enforcement officials of doing just the opposite. They said the former personal Trump lawyer and Florida attorney general obstructed key elements of the Justice Department, including its public corruption unit.
Bondi also launched baseless investigations into Trump’s political enemies and covered up for Trump allies accused of criminal wrongdoing, including convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and border czar Tom Homan.
“Our nation’s highest law enforcement agency has become a shield for the president and his political allies as they engage in wrongdoing,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee’s top Democrat.
In response to Democratic questions on a wide range of issues, the militant bond often hurled insults and rebuttals.
She called Sen. Adam Schiff a “failed lawyer” and a “liar.”
Many of the brief exchanges came in response to questions about Epstein. And Bondi’s joint announcement with FBI Director Kash Patel in July that they would not release the so-called Epstein files.
“There have been public reports that Jeffrey Epstein showed people pictures of naked young women and President Trump,” former federal prosecutor Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, asked Bondi. “Do you know if the FBI searched Jeffrey Epstein’s safe, compound, etc. and found these photos?”
“You sit here and try to smear President Trump left and right and make one more vile remark while you were making money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants,” Bondi shot back. “I believe I could be wrong. Please correct me.”
Bondi, appearing before the committee for the first time since taking office, accused Durbin of undermining an earlier investigation into Epstein. And when he asked her if she had “issued an order flagging records related to President Trump” in the Epstein file, she responded: “I’m not going to discuss it. anything About that with you, Senator. ”
“Ultimately you’re going to have to answer for your actions in this,” Durbin said. “You won’t do it today, but eventually you will.”
Bondi accused 77-year-old Hawaii Sen. Mazie Fuirono of being the spouse of an Antifa protester. That accusation came as Hirono asked Bondi whether he had authorized a bribery investigation into whether Homan reportedly obtained a $50,000 cash bribe from an undercover FBI agent before joining the Trump administration, captured on Video Tape.
“You were also protesting outside the White House, where Antifa members were,” Bondi said. Later, in response to another question, she told Hirono, “I think a lot of people don’t like that you’re protesting ANTIFA.”
And when Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said he was “trying to be positive and constructive” with a question about whether Bondi had politicized the department, Bondi interrupted him to say, “I’m not going to get into a ditch with you.”
“I will not be lectured,” Bondi added, “about honesty by someone who lied about being in the military just to get elected to the Senate.”
A Reuters photographer captured some of Bondi’s pre-planned attacks inside a manila folder that Bondi sometimes opened during his testimony.
Senate Judiciary Democrats then posted their own reactions to X.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Durbin said. “These are oversight hearings. Some of the questions are pointed and tough, but her response was completely over the top and refused to answer the most basic questions about the matter before she felt the department was not doing its appointed job.”
One former federal prosecutor, Ankush Khardori, wrote in his political column “Rule of Law” after watching the hearing that “Bondi has emerged as perhaps the most openly political and partisan attorney general in modern American history.”
However, Trump supporters praised her performance on social media, sharing video soundbites of Bondi’s exchanges, facial expressions, and folded body language.
“Savage” Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon responded to a video of Bondi telling Schiff on X, “Surveillance? I want my five minutes of fame.”
The Justice Department was not immediately available to comment on Bondi’s testimony.
