Attorney General Pam Bondi’s look earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday confirmed the sharp divide between the left and the correct on how justice within the US is being carried out.
Democrats and Republicans repeatedly talked previous each other all through the hearing, pointing fingers throughout the aisle over who was responsible for weaponizing the Justice Department.
Democrats accused Bondi of permitting President Donald Trump to direct prosecutions of his political enemies, together with final month’s indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. Republicans, in the meantime, blamed the Biden Justice Department of utilizing particular counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump and spy on Republicans, pointing to the discharge Monday of paperwork exhibiting Smith’s investigation obtained call records by way of a courtroom order of eight Senate Republicans.
Bondi approached Tuesdays’ hearing ready to deflect Democratic questions on quite a lot of matters, from the Comey prosecution and the discharge of the Epstein information to the deployment of National Guard troops in blue states. She additionally had a number of non-public assaults on the able to attempt to brush again her Democratic questioners.
Here are takeaways from Tuesday’s hearing:
Bondi’s technique: Deflect and assault
Bondi fended off questions on the investigation into accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, National Guard deployments, and investigations into Trump’s political enemies, utilizing quick-one liners to deflect and private assaults to push again in opposition to Democrats.
As senators pushed her on Trump’s connections to Epstein, the lawyer normal repeatedly claimed that those self same Democrats had connections to a different alleged affiliate of Epstein’s, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
She additionally questioned why Democrats hadn’t raised issues in regards to the Epstein investigation earlier than her time period, at one level difficult senators by responding, “Did you ask Merrick Garland any of this over the last four years when he sat before you?”
And when Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin pushed Bondi on the authorized rationale for sending National Guard troops to Durbin’s state in opposition to the governor’s needs, the lawyer normal shot again: “I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.”
She attacked a number of different Democrats personally.
When Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal questioned Bondi over her connections to a regulation agency concerned in a merger scrutinized by the Justice Department, Bondi went after Blumenthal for decade-old allegations he lied about navy service in Vietnam.
“Senator Blumenthal, I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service,” Bondi stated. “How dare you? I’m a career prosecutor. Don’t you ever challenge my integrity.”
In response to questions from Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii in regards to the closing of an investigation into Trump’s border czar Tom Homan reportedly taking $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI brokers final 12 months, Bondi stated that no credible proof of wrongdoing was discovered after which shot again with a non-sequitur.
“You were also on video outside the White House protesting with a group … where ANTIFA members were. Does that mean you’re a member of ANTIFA?” Bondi stated.
In much less contentious exchanges, the lawyer normal responded to questions by criticizing Democrats for not voting to finish the federal government shutdown.
“The personnel issue that I’m having right now is that all of my agents, all of my lawyers, are … working without a paycheck because your party voted to shut down the federal government,” Bondi stated.
In one trade throughout which Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse accused Emil Bove of prosecutorial misconduct throughout his temporary stint as principal affiliate deputy lawyer normal, Bondi stopped him with a rejoinder: “To correct you for one moment, that would be the Honorable Judge Emil J. Bove III to you.”
Democrats pointed to quite a few examples they are saying present Bondi has did not maintain the Justice Department unbiased from the whims and needs of the president.
Bondi was pressed a couple of social media publish Trump made straight urging Bondi in September to prosecute three of his political enemies, telling her, “we can’t delay any longer” and that not bringing legal in opposition to a number of Democrats costs is “killing our reputation and credibility.”
Less than per week later, Comey was indicted within the Eastern District of Virginia.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, requested Bondi whether or not she thought of the publish “a directive to the Justice Department.”
Bondi replied, “Trump is the most transparent president in American history, and I don’t think he said anything that he hasn’t said for years.”
Blumenthal displayed a photograph of Bondi having dinner on the White House with Trump the night time earlier than Comey was indicted. She disputed his suggestion it was a small dinner however wouldn’t have interaction on what she had mentioned with the president.
“I am not going to discuss any conversations I have or have not had with the President of the United States,” Bondi stated Tuesday.
Democrats additionally pressed Bondi on the firing of quite a few DOJ officers, together with attorneys fired for his or her work on January 6 circumstances or for refusing sure prosecutions of anti-Trump figures. She stated she wouldn’t talk about personnel issues.
Several Republican senators pointed to the discharge of paperwork the night time earlier than Tuesday’s hearing that confirmed the phone records of eight Republican senators and a House lawmaker were obtained as a part of the particular counsel’s investigation into Trump and 2020 election interference.
Bondi referred to as the disclosure a “betrayal of public trust.”
“They were playing politics with law enforcement powers and will go down as a historic betrayal of public trust,” Bondi stated. “This is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people’s faith in our law enforcement system.”
That cellphone data of some lawmakers have been seized within the probe and have been made public in courtroom paperwork as Smith’s investigation was ongoing. There isn’t any indication that the Republican senators have been targets of the probe.
While the cellphone data have been obtained through courtroom order, a number of Republican senators steered the actions of the Biden Justice Department have been legal and urged Bondi to analyze.
GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee lamented what she described as a “lack of caring from my colleagues across the dais when it comes to how the DOJ under Biden was weaponized.”
As Republicans and Democrats took turns questioning Bondi, the accusations of politicized justice continued to be thrown backwards and forwards throughout the aisle — with either side accusing the opposite of a double commonplace.
“The double standard is clear, and the American people are waking up to the corruption and favoritism and the lawlessness at the DOJ,” Hirono stated of the DOJ beneath Bondi.
“The double standard is crystal clear,” Bondi responded after Hirono’s time expired. “You didn’t complain for four years when President Trump was being targeted by Jack Smith, by the last Justice Department, but the American people spoke loud and clear when they overwhelmingly elected him. The two-tier system of justice is over.”
Republicans and Bondi defend Comey prosecution
Bondi and a former Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee defended the indictment of Comey throughout Tuesday’s hearing, someday earlier than he’s set to be arraigned on costs that he allegedly lied to Congress in 2020 testimony.
Bondi declined to get into any specifics in regards to the Comey costs, however she tried to defend it a number of instances by suggesting the Alexandria, Virginia, grand jury that handed up the indictment was a liberal one.
“I am not going to discuss pending cases because Comey was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia by, I may point out, is one of the most liberal grand juries in the country,” Bondi stated when Klobuchar requested about profession prosecutors discovering inadequate proof for an indictment.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 throughout Comey’s testimony raised within the indictment, ticked by way of a litany of grievances associated to Comey’s actions whereas FBI director and the FBI’s investigation into Trump and Russia.
Graham questioned Comey’s testimony that he didn’t learn about a 2016 intelligence about an alleged “Clinton plan” to tie Trump to Russia in the course of the 2016 marketing campaign. (Former particular counsel John Durham discovered that the emails cited within the intelligence appeared to be faked, based on an annex to his report launched earlier this 12 months.)
Comey’s response to Graham about that intelligence was included within the costs DOJ sought in opposition to Comey, however the grand jury rejected that rely.
Graham went after Comey’s bigger dealing with of the FBI’s Russia investigation in 2016 and 2017, ticking by way of his longstanding criticism of the Crossfire Hurricane probe.
“Why are we looking at Comey? Give me a break,” Graham stated with exasperation. “Why are we looking at Comey? Because he ran an FBI and personally knew about exculpatory information and let it slide.”