Five takeaways from Pam Bondi’s tense, partisan Senate testimony

Pam Bondi’s testimony earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee was anticipated to be a contentious, partisan affair. It lived as much as that billing.

It was the legal professional normal’s first look at a congressional oversight listening to – and it was a well timed one.

Two weeks in the past, her justice division indicted former FBI Director James Comey, triggering an outcry from Democratic politicians.

Her testimony on Tuesday additionally got here only a day after a gaggle of former justice division workers launched a letter accusing Bondi of serving to to take a “sledgehammer” to “longstanding work the division has achieved to guard communities and the rule of legislation”.

Nerves have been uncooked, and Bondi was clearly prepared for a battle. Listed here are 5 takeaways from the listening to.

Latest Trump administration officers, together with Well being Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and FBI Director Kash Patel, have relied on a transparent playbook for testimony earlier than hostile congressional committees.

Go on the assault early and infrequently.

That technique was on show all through Bondi’s testimony. When pressed on Nationwide Guard deployments, she mentioned she wished Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and California Senator Alex Padilla beloved their states “as a lot as they hate Donald Trump”.

When questioned about Jeffrey Epstein, she famous that a number of Democratic senators had taken cash from deep-pocketed donors who had ties to the late convicted intercourse trafficker.

Bondi launched a sequence of pointed assaults on senators as they questioned her.

And when it was time for junior Vermont Senator Peter Welch to ask questions, he started by observing Bondi’s penchant for launching private assaults.

“I will be ready for my flip,” the soft-spoken New Englander mentioned. “However you do not have to do it now”.

When Bondi wasn’t occurring the assault, she often declined to touch upon questions from each Democrats and Republicans.

She mentioned she would not focus on “personnel issues” when questioned in regards to the spate of senior stage justice division firings, together with prime FBI officers and a US lawyer who had beneficial towards the Comey indictment.

She would not touch upon “ongoing investigations” and authorized proceedings – together with the Comey case. She additionally would not make clear conversations she has had with the president or different White Home aides.

When offered with a big {photograph} of her sitting at a desk with the president the day after Trump had penned a Reality Social submit calling for her to indict Comey, her solely comment was that she beloved the image.

“That is alleged to be an oversight listening to the place members of Congress can get critical solutions to critical questions,” California Senator Adam Schiff mentioned, after itemizing all of the questions that Bondi had refused to reply.

“I believe you owe the president an apology in your complete profession,” Bondi replied.

Bondi appeared decided to deal with what she mentioned was the Trump administration’s purpose of lowering crime within the US.

She was fast to quote statistics that she mentioned confirmed the successes they’ve had thus far – the variety of arrests in Washington DC, the drug crackdowns and unlawful firearm confiscations in Chicago, the drug seizures on the border.

“We’re returning to our core mission of preventing actual crime,” Bondi mentioned.

Democrats could have had different concepts, however Bondi – and the White Home – doubtless really feel they’re on the most secure political floor once they discuss crime-fighting.

It is a matter that, in keeping with the polls, many People care about – and one which has the potential to attraction not simply to die-hard conservative partisans, however to unbiased and Democratic voters as effectively.

A supply of specific warmth for Bondi over the previous few months has been the justice division’s dealing with of its investigation into Epstein, who earlier than his dying had effectively documented ties to many wealthy and highly effective People.

For many of the listening to, Democrats have been those peppering Bondi with Epstein-related questions.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse needed to know if the FBI had found footage of Trump and “half-naked younger girls”, and whether or not the justice division had regarded into “suspicious exercise experiences” about Epstein’s funds.

Bondi would not reply.

Dick Durbin requested about claims that the justice division had flagged something in its Epstein paperwork associated to Trump to the president.

“I am not going to debate something about that with you, senator,” Bondi replied.

The legal professional normal was requested why her division now says there isn’t any record of Epstein’s shoppers after she earlier claimed to have that info on her desk.

Bondi responded by citing the division’s earlier discovering that there was no proof of conspiracy or a cover-up surrounding the investigation.

The questions nonetheless swirling across the Epstein investigation have been a uncommon supply of bipartisan curiosity, with some Republicans becoming a member of Democrats to name for extra transparency. It took some time, however this Senate listening to lastly gave some indication of that.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana recounted latest feedback by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that Epstein was “the best blackmailer ever”.

The Louisiana senator urged Lutnick, who owned a house close to Epstein in Palm Seaside Florida, ought to testify earlier than Congress and communicate to the FBI.

Bondi continued her Epstein dance, saying it was as much as Lutnick and FBI Director Kash Patel to determine if a gathering was vital.

If Democrats have been targeted on what they view because the unprecedented weaponisation of the justice division beneath Trump, many of the Republican senators have been extra serious about preventing battles from the Biden presidency – or earlier.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley spent a lot of the hearings interjecting on how Democrats had, in his view, stonewalled investigations into the Biden household’s enterprise dealings.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham condemned the FBI’s Russia investigation following the 2016 presidential election. Ted Cruz of Texas targeted on protests exterior the properties of conservative Supreme Court docket justices within the wake of their 2021 determination overturning abortion rights.

Eric Schmidt of Missouri stuffed out a veritable bingo card of right-wing complaints directed on the justice division.

Bondi, for her half, wholeheartedly agreed with the Republican refrain.

When the five-hour listening to lastly concluded, the occasion had the sensation of a partisan home of mirrors, with all sides accusing the opposite of political weaponisation and partisan prosecutions.

“The Division of Justice is meant to be the nation’s guardian of equity and the rule of legislation,” Senator Alex Padilla mentioned throughout his questioning. “When the general public belief breaks down, then justice itself is in danger.”

It’s the form of remark that each Republicans and Democrats on the committee might agree with – earlier than casting the opposite facet because the supply of the nation’s ills.