Pam Bondi testifies earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee throughout her affirmation listening to to be the subsequent U.S. legal professional basic on Jan. 15.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos
The Senate has voted to verify Pam Bondi to function legal professional basic, elevating a longtime defender of President Trump to steer the Justice Division and oversee the greater than 100,000 who work for it and its part companies — together with the FBI.
Bondi was confirmed Tuesday by a vote of 54 to 46.
She is going to arrive on the Justice Division after having served as a prosecutor in Tampa, Fla., for nearly 20 years, after which the state’s legal professional basic — a place she held for eight years.
She enters the function of legal professional basic with deep ties to the president’s orbit. Bondi spoke on Trump’s behalf on the 2016 Republican Nationwide Conference, and was later considered one of his private attorneys throughout his first impeachment trial. Extra just lately, she led the authorized arm of the America First Coverage Institute, a suppose tank headed by former members of Trump’s first administration.
Earlier than her nomination, Bondi publicly pushed false claims of fraud within the 2020 election, and has mentioned Trump was unfairly prosecuted after leaving workplace in 2021. Due to this, throughout her affirmation listening to in January, she was repeatedly pressed by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether or not she would be capable to lead the Justice Division freed from affect from the White Home.
Bondi pledged to be unbiased because the nation’s prime prosecutor, telling senators that politics wouldn’t issue into her decision-making atop the Justice Division.
“Each case can be prosecuted based mostly on the details and the regulation that’s utilized in good religion — interval. Politics have gotten to be taken out of the system,” she mentioned.
Bondi additionally confronted questions on whether or not she would prosecute the president’s perceived political enemies, together with on the Justice Division, given remarks she made on Fox Information in 2023.
“The Division of Justice, the prosecutors can be prosecuted. The unhealthy ones,” she mentioned on the time. “The investigators can be investigated as a result of the deep state, final time period for President Trump, they have been hiding within the shadows however now they’ve a highlight on them and so they can all be investigated.”
Bondi sought to distance herself from these remarks throughout her affirmation listening to, emphasizing that the division should act independently. However when requested by Democrats on the committee if she would prosecute figures akin to former Particular Counsel Jack Smith, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney and former Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland, Bondi mentioned, “I’m not going to reply hypotheticals.”
She additionally mentioned throughout her listening to that her priorities as legal professional basic can be gangs, medication, cartels, the border and international adversaries.
“I’ll battle every single day to revive confidence and integrity to the Division of Justice and every of its elements,” she mentioned. “The partisanship, the weaponization can be gone. America can have one tier of justice for all.”
Bondi was nominated after Trump’s preliminary selection, former Fla. Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew his identify from consideration and resigned from Congress after dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct and unlawful drug use in a House report. Gaetz has persistently denied any wrongdoing.
