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Who: Pamela Bondi

Nominated for: legal professional normal

You may know her from: She served as Florida’s legal professional normal for eight years, and later served as a private legal professional for then-President Trump throughout his first impeachment trial within the U.S. Senate.

• She publicly pushed false claims of fraud within the 2020 election.
• She says Trump was unfairly prosecuted after leaving workplace in 2021.
• She has referred to as people who investigated and prosecuted Trump members of “the deep state” and mentioned they are going to face prosecution.

What does this function do? The legal professional normal leads the Justice Division and oversees the greater than 100,000 individuals who work for it and its element companies, together with the FBI.

This is what occurred on the listening to

Bondi pledged to be unbiased because the nation’s high prosecutor, as she confronted sharp questions from Democrats about her private ties to Trump and previous statements on election fraud and political retribution.

Throughout her Senate affirmation listening to Wednesday, Bondi repeatedly informed senators that politics wouldn’t play a job in her selections as chief of the Justice Division.

“Each case will probably be prosecuted based mostly on the info and the regulation that’s utilized in good religion — interval. Politics have gotten to be taken out of the system,” she mentioned.

However Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee pressed Bondi on Trump’s earlier threats to focus on or prosecute his political rivals. Democrats additionally referenced examples of Trump pressuring his first-term attorneys normal to take — or not take — sure actions.

“The president-elect made it clear that he values one factor above all else, and he mentioned it time and again: loyalty,” mentioned Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Unwell., the rating Democrat on the committee. “The view that the Justice Division should be insulated from political affect and shouldn’t be weaponized in opposition to political rivals has traditionally been bipartisan, definitely on this committee. At this important second in historical past, that view, not Mr. Trump’s view, should prevail.”

Republicans say Biden’s Justice Division is corrupt

Bondi and Republican senators countered that they imagine the division has been weaponized in opposition to Trump, citing the varied authorized instances in opposition to him.

Justice Division prosecutors wound down the 2 federal legal instances in opposition to Trump after he gained the 2024 election, following longstanding division precedent. In a report on the federal government’s election interference case launched this week, particular counsel Jack Smith mentioned the proof in opposition to Trump would have led to his conviction at trial — if not for his election victory that led to fees being dropped.

“They focused Donald Trump,” Bondi mentioned. “They went after him, truly, beginning again in 2016 they focused his marketing campaign. They’ve launched numerous investigations in opposition to him. That won’t be the case. If I’m legal professional normal, I cannot politicize that workplace. I cannot goal individuals merely due to their political affiliation.”

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican committee chair, charged that “by each metric, the Biden-Harris Justice Division conduct has did not reside as much as our nation’s beliefs.”

“Ms. Bondi, do you have to be confirmed, the actions you are taking to alter the division’s course should be for accountability,” Grassley mentioned.

Throughout her listening to, she mentioned she is going to “struggle each day to revive confidence” within the Justice Division, and that her “overriding goal will probably be to return the Justice Division to its core mission of protecting People secure and vigorously prosecuting criminals.”

A former two-term legal professional normal for the state of Florida, Bondi is anticipated to obtain broad assist from Republicans, who maintain the Senate majority.

Bondi was Trump’s second alternative for legal professional normal. His first choose, former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration amid a backlash over allegations of sexual misconduct and unlawful drug use. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.

Bondi and Democrats conflict over false election claims

After the 2020 election, Bondi backed Trump’s false claims that widespread election fraud had “stolen” his victory.

On Wednesday, Durbin requested Bondi if she was “ready to say in the present day, beneath oath, with out reservation, that Donald Trump misplaced the presidential contest to Joe Biden in 2020?”

Bondi affirmed that Biden is the president, however added that she “noticed many issues” as a Trump marketing campaign surrogate working in Pennsylvania.

“Nobody from both facet of the aisle ought to need there to be any points with election integrity in our nation,” Bondi mentioned. “We should always all need our elections to be free and honest and the foundations and the legal guidelines to be adopted.”

Durbin responded that the query “deserves a sure or no.”

“I feel the size of your reply is a sign that you just weren’t ready to reply sure,” Durbin mentioned.

Democrats returned to the 2020 election all through the listening to, with Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., asking Bondi whether or not she would “retract” her earlier statements that Trump gained Pennsylvania in 2020.

When Padilla pushed her for a yes-or-no reply, Bondi mentioned she was “not going to be bullied.”

Republicans reward Bondi’s {qualifications}

In her opening assertion, Bondi highlighted her expertise as a state prosecutor and her efforts combating opioid producers as Florida legal professional normal.

After leaving workplace, Bondi served as a private legal professional for Trump and labored as a lobbyist for company purchasers, together with Amazon and Uber, and lobbied on behalf of the federal government of Qatar.

On Wednesday, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz referred to as Bondi “clearly certified for this place.” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., mentioned her “credentials converse for themselves.”

If confirmed, Bondi will lead the Justice Division and wield the huge powers that include it. She will probably be chargeable for implementing federal legal guidelines, together with voting and civil rights legal guidelines, in addition to defending the Trump administration’s insurance policies in courtroom.

The job of legal professional normal is likely one of the most essential in any administration, however it’s seen as having specific significance in Trump’s second time period due to his tumultuous relationship with the division prior to now.

“The prosecutors will probably be prosecuted”

A lot of Trump’s first presidency came about within the shadow of Justice Division particular counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into doable ties between Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign and Russia.

After leaving workplace, Trump confronted 4 legal prosecutions, together with two federal instances introduced by particular counsel Smith into Trump’s dealing with of categorised paperwork and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump was not charged within the Mueller investigation, and neither of the Smith instances ever made it to trial.

Nonetheless, Trump has claimed that the Justice Division was weaponized in opposition to him, and through the 2024 marketing campaign he repeatedly talked about looking for vengeance in opposition to his perceived political enemies, together with on the division.

Bondi has echoed that view in a few of her personal public statements.

“The Division of Justice, the prosecutors will probably be prosecuted. The dangerous ones,” she mentioned on Fox Information in 2023. “The investigators will probably be investigated as a result of the deep state, final time period for President Trump, they had been hiding within the shadows however now they’ve a highlight on them they usually can all be investigated.”

These kinds of feedback have fueled considerations amongst Democrats that Bondi will use the division’s prosecutorial powers to pursue Trump’s acknowledged want for vengeance.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, requested Bondi Wednesday whether or not she thought of Smith a type of “dangerous prosecutors.”

A number of of Trump’s private attorneys are up for high jobs

If confirmed, Bondi would enter the job with deep ties in Trump world, again to when she spoke on his behalf on the 2016 Republican Nationwide Conference. Extra not too long ago, she led the authorized arm of the America First Coverage Institute, a assume tank led by former members of Trump’s first administration.

Bondi shouldn’t be the one former private legal professional of Trump’s to be tapped for a high job on the Justice Division.

Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who’ve represented Trump in state and federal courtroom, have been picked for deputy legal professional normal and one other senior submit, respectively, whereas former Missouri Solicitor Basic D. John Sauer, who represented Trump earlier than the Supreme Court docket, has been picked as solicitor normal for the incoming administration.