WASHINGTON – Pamela Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and President-elect Donald Trump’s replacement nominee for U.S. Attorney General, faced a heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. Bondi, tapped by Trump in November after the controversial withdrawal of then-nominee Rep. Matt Gaetz, fielded questions ranging from pardons to FBI Director nominee Kash Patel.
Senator Dick Durbin (D–Ill.), the committee’s ranking member, pressed Bondi on whether she could state, without reservation, “that Donald Trump lost the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020.”
Bondi responded with a line she would repeat throughout the afternoon: “President Biden is the president of the United States.” When asked about doubts regarding President Joe Biden winning the majority of votes in 2020, she pivoted to concerns about election integrity, stating, “No one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity in our country.”
Durbin criticized her response as evasive, highlighting her previous advocacy for Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Senators repeatedly questioned Bondi’s ability to resist potential political interference from the White House. Bondi assured the committee, “The Justice Department must be independent and must act independently,” and vowed she would follow the Constitution and the law. However, Democratic senators expressed skepticism, citing her close ties to Trump, which include her role as a legal advisor during his first impeachment in 2019. Bondi is one of four of Trump’s personal attorneys in line for Justice Department jobs, with the others being Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and D. John Sauer.
When asked about the controversial appointment of Kash Patel as FBI Director, Bondi praised Patel’s experience but denied knowledge of his alleged “enemies list,” asserting, “There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice under my watch.”
While Republican senators praised Bondi’s tenure as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019 by highlighting her efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and human trafficking, Democrats continued to press her over 2020 election denialism. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said, “Ms. Bondi, you know there is a difference between acknowledging it. I can say that Donald Trump won the 2024 election. I may not like it, but I can say it. You cannot say who won the 2020 presidential election. It’s disturbing that you can’t give voice to that fact.”
Trump’s potential plan to pardon January 6th rioters was another point of contention for Democrats. Throughout the hearing, Bondi repeated that she would review pardon applications on a case-by-case basis and condemned violence against law enforcement when asked about her role in advising Trump. However, she avoided directly addressing whether such individuals deserved pardons, emphasizing a focus on facts and evidence.
Supporters, including Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), lauded Bondi for her qualifications and dismissed concerns over previous connections to Trump.
At the start of the hearing, Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) emphasized disappointment in some of the actions current Attorney General Merrick Garland and his department took at the time of his nomination, but urged the committee to act swiftly in pushing through her nomination.
“This committee should give Ms. Bondi the same benefit of the doubt that this committee gave to Attorney General Garland. President Trump has elected a nominee whose qualifications speak for themselves,” he said.
