Bondi faces grilling from Senate Democrats on DOJ ‘weaponization,’ Epstein files

President Donald Trump’s tightening grip over the Justice Division to target his political opponents and lawmakers’ growing requires the discharge of extra information from federal investigations into deceased intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein took middle stage at a contentious Senate listening to Tuesday for Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi.

The listening to earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee is the primary time since July that Bondi has confronted questions from lawmakers and follows a tumultuous summer time for the division that included deployments of federal legislation enforcement to Democratic-run cities, a rising variety of investigations introduced into Trump’s political foes and the controversial indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.

Democratic, Republican leaders differ on listening to focus

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley kicked off the listening to with in depth remarks in search of to spotlight situations of what Republicans have labeled “weaponization” of the Justice Division below the Biden Administration, citing selective disclosures by FBI Director Kash Patel of the investigation into President Trump’s try and overturn his 2020 election loss.

“These are indefensible acts,” Grassley stated. “This was a political phishing expedition to get Trump in any respect prices.”

Particularly, Grassley singled out a well timed disclosure by the FBI on Monday that confirmed former Particular Counsel Jack Smith’s investigators at one level sought restricted telephone toll data of a number of Republican senators across the time of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

As a part of his investigation, Smith extensively investigated Trump and his allies’ strain marketing campaign on lawmakers to dam the certification of former President Joe Biden’s election win — together with calls that had been made to senators after the Capitol was breached by the pro-Trump mob.

There isn’t any indication that Republican senators had been a goal of Smith’s investigation, and the toll data sought by investigators wouldn’t embody any details about the content material of conversations they could have had.

“We’re pointing this all out as a result of we won’t have this repeated in the US,” Grassley stated. “We wish to finish it proper now, whether or not we’ve Republican or Democrat administrations.”

Grassley made no point out of current directives from Trump to have the Justice Division act “now” to hold out prosecutions of his political foes, or different situations of alleged politicization throughout Bondi’s tenure which have led to scores of exits of longtime profession officers who’ve sounded alarm concerning the division getting used as a instrument to enact political retribution.

Rating Democratic member Dick Durbin stated in his opening assertion assailed the Trump administration for the conduct in Chicago, a metropolis during which Durbin represents.

“As President Trump turns the total pressure of the federal authorities on Chicago and different American cities, the assault on town I’m proud to symbolize is only one instance of how President Trump and Lawyer Normal Bondi shut down justice on the Division of Justice, even earlier than the president’s celebration controlling the white Home, Senate and Home of Representatives shut down the federal government,” Durbin stated.

“The legal professional normal has systematically weaponized our nation’s main legislation enforcement company to guard President Trump and his allies and assault his opponents. And sadly, the American individuals. You will have purged a whole lot of senior profession officers because you first appeared earlier than us,” he added.

Durbin listed off the best hits for critics of Bondi’s Justice Division, to not embody the closed investigation into Border Czar Tom Homan, the Eric Adams case being dropped, the hiring of a Jan. 6 defendant who attacked MPD officers, the dealing with of the Jeffrey Epstein information, and the case in opposition to James Comey.

“What has taken place since Jan. 20, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil. That is your legacy,” Durbin stated.

Bondi pushes again in opposition to Democrats

Bondi pushed again in opposition to her critics and Democrats in the course of the listening to. In her opening assertion, she framed her tenure because the “finish” of weaponization of legislation enforcement, whereas reinforcing her in depth efforts to enact President Trump’s agenda.

“We’ll work to earn that again each single day. We’re returning to our core mission of preventing actual crime. Whereas there may be extra work to do, I imagine in eight quick months we’ve made great progress in direction of these ends,” she stated.

She additionally railed in opposition to judges who’ve dominated in opposition to the administration within the months since Trump took workplace, whereas highlighting the Justice Division’s string of victories on the Supreme Court docket.

“My attorneys have executed unimaginable work advancing President Trump’s agenda and defending the Govt Department from judicial overreach,” she stated.

Bondi continued to hit again at Durbin, who questioned her concerning the federal deployment to Illinois.

The legal professional normal taunted the senator about Chicago’s crime fee. Bondi stated that Patel and Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche had been on their option to town.

“Chairman, as you shut down the federal government, you voted to close down the federal government and also you’re sitting right here as legislation enforcement officers aren’t being paid. They’re on the market working to guard you. I want you’re keen on Chicago as a lot as you hate President Trump,” she stated.

Durbin was stunned by Bondi’s responses.

“Madam legal professional normal, it is my job to grill you. Investigation of your company is a part of my accountability. And this – this committee, you imply. I might just like the expertise, however others have weathered the storm and answered questions in a respectful method,” he stated.

Bondi within the sizzling seat over Epstein information

Bondi confronted heavy scrutiny over conflicting statements out of the administration on the Epstein information, after the Justice Division and FBI stated in a July letter that no additional releases had been warranted and that there was no proof suggesting others participated or enabled Epstein’s abuse of minor ladies.

Democrats have accused the administration of in search of to cowl up any mentions of Trump or high-profile appointees who had previous associations with Epstein, which the administration has denied.

Trump and Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on prices of trafficking younger women and girls, had been associates within the Nineties however the president stated the connection soured after Epstein poached some employees from Trump’s Florida membership after he explicitly warned him not to take action.

When requested on Fox Information concerning the alleged Epstein shopper listing, the legal professional normal informed Fox Information in February, “It is sitting on my desk proper now to evaluation.”

She refused to elaborate about these previous feedback or the rising requires the Epstein information whereas testifying.

Bondi responded to particular person Democrats who sought extra particulars by surfacing donations they allegedly could have obtained from Reid Hoffman — an entrepreneur and founding father of LinkedIn who is understood to have previous associations with Epstein.

She once more surfaced Hoffman’s alleged donations in an alternate with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, during which she once more refused to reply his direct questions concerning the Epstein information.

Political concentrating on questioned

Trump has just lately ordered the division to ramp up investigations into so-called “radical left” organizations that he and different senior White Home officers have alleged, with out offering proof, as serving to to fund perpetrators who’ve attacked federal legislation enforcement officers dispatched across the nation.

Simply days after Trump’s feedback, a senior official within the Justice Division ordered a number of U.S. Lawyer’s workplaces across the nation to arrange to open sweeping criminal investigations in to the Open Society Foundations based by billionaire George Soros, naming felony statutes starting from theft, materials assist for terrorism and racketeering, ABC Information beforehand confirmed.

In an announcement, the Open Society Foundations known as the accusations “politically motivated assaults on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Modification proper to free speech.”

Bondi sought to brush off pointed questions from Democrats by repeatedly deflecting to crimes dedicated by undocumented immigrants of their states and districts that had been among the many briefing supplies she introduced together with her to the hearings.

She has additionally dismissed any characterization of the Justice Division showing to work in lockstep with the White Home as “politicization” of legislation enforcement. Bondi and different senior DOJ officers have as an alternative argued that the 2 federal instances introduced in opposition to Trump by a particular counsel below the Biden Administration represented a much more egregious instance of weaponization, echoing grievances leveled on the division by Trump.

DOJ below scrutiny amid rising controversies

As ABC Information first reported, the transfer to hunt Comey’s indictment came to visit the objections of profession prosecutors and adopted Trump’s removing of his appointee to steer the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Japanese District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, who expressed reservations about pursuing prices in opposition to Comey and New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James, sources informed ABC Information.

Trump finally put in a White Home aide and former private legal professional Lindsey Halligan to steer the workplace and transfer ahead with the case in opposition to Comey, and a grand jury narrowly voted to indict him on two counts of creating false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation — whereas declining to indict on a 3rd false statements cost. Comey has denied wrongdoing and is about to seem Thursday in federal court docket for his arraignment.

Whereas sources informed ABC Information that management on the DOJ expressed reservations about pursuing the case, Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel went on to publicly cheer information of Comey’s indictment in information interviews and social media posts.

The following week, the administration moved to fireplace a high nationwide safety prosecutor within the workplace, Michael Ben’Ary, over a deceptive social media put up that falsely urged he was among the many prosecutors who resisted charging Comey.

Ben’Ary was main a significant case in opposition to one of many alleged plotters of the Abbey Gate bombing in the course of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In a scathing departure letter, Ben’Ary set his sights squarely on the Justice Division’s management and labeled his removing as only one in a collection of current strikes taken to root out profession officers for political causes on the expense of the nation’s safety.

“This instance highlights essentially the most troubling side of the present operations of the Division of Justice: the management is extra involved with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they’re with defending our nationwide safety,” Ben’Ary wrote. “Justice for People killed and injured by our enemies shouldn’t be contingent on what somebody within the Division of Justice sees of their social media feed that day.”

The DOJ declined to remark when requested about Ben’Ary’s letter.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal pressed Bondi repeatedly on Tuesday over situations of strain on the division by Trump and what conversations she could have had with him within the days main as much as the indictment of Comey.

“I might prefer to know from you what conversations you had with President Trump concerning the indictment of James Comey,” Blumenthal stated.

“Senator, I’m not going to debate any conversations I’ve or haven’t had with the President of the US. You are an legal professional, you have got a legislation diploma, and you recognize that I am not going to try this,” Bondi stated on Tuesday.

These actions have triggered unprecedented turmoil on the Japanese District, which oversees a number of the nation’s most delicate nationwide safety, terrorism and espionage investigations.

Present and former officers say that turmoil has reverberated additional throughout the Justice Division’s workforce across the nation, with attorneys involved they’re going to face skilled repercussions in the event that they resist collaborating in politicized investigations or prosecutions.

On Monday, practically 300 DOJ workers who left the division since Trump’s inauguration released a letter on the eve of Bondi’s listening to describing her management as “appalling” in its remedy of the profession workforce and the elimination of longstanding norms of independence from the White Home.

“We name on Congress to train its oversight obligations way more vigorously,” the previous workers stated. “Members in each chambers and on either side of the aisle should present a significant verify on the abuses we’re witnessing. And we name on all People — whose security, prosperity, and rights depend upon a robust DOJ — to talk out in opposition to its destruction.”

The DOJ declined to touch upon the letter.