During the subsequent confirmation hearing for Attorney General Nominee Pamela Bondi, the former Department of Justice leading standard who led the sham” Russiagate” analysis of Donald Trump claimed America’s leading law commanders are responsible for “preventing” the company’s “weaponization”.
Mary McCord, a former DOJ assistant attorney general, testified as a witness during Thursday’s hearing that “public respect” for the attorney general and the DOJ comes from “impartial adherence to the rule of law, free from improper political influence”.
The next attorney general should be prepared to take the necessary steps, she said, adding that the Senate should do so.
But McCord was the top national security official who led the DOJ’s hoax investigation of the Trump campaign for supposed “ties to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election”, as NBC reported. Under McCord’s leadership, the FBI obtained a warrant to eavesdrop on Trump’s campaign team members under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ( FISA ) by using the fabricated Steele Dossier, which Clinton’s campaign had funded.
In a 2019 inspector general’s report, McCord admitted to being “part of the investigation” including the first FISA application to spy on Trump adviser Carter Page in September and October 2016. McCord has spent the last few years co-hosting an MSNBC podcast called” Prosecuting Donald Trump.”
When NPR asked McCord in 2019 how she would respond to the DOJ’s actions, she attributed the failure of the FBI to inform Department of Justice attorneys of “pertinent facts and relevant facts that should have been provided.”
During Thursday’s hearing, McCord stated that” the lawyers and law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice are crucial to preventing the weaponization of the department and preserving impartial adherence to the rule of law.” This includes recusal for the attorney general if their impartiality regarding any particular investigation or case could be questioned, as the Constitution dictates. And it means reaffirming long-standing rules limiting communications between the department and the White House on particular inquiries and cases.
According to McCord, the attorney general’s job requires” not executing searches without a warrant,”” not denying the equal protection of the law to all people in the United States,” and” not targeting people or organizations for investigation or prosecution based on protected speech.”
Bondi stated at her first hearing on Wednesday that she would pursue “every case… based on the facts and the law that is applied in good faith” if chosen as attorney general.
McCord suggested that Bondi would not have immunity if she engaged in illegal or unconstitutional behavior while carrying out a Donald Trump directive, despite the fact that she has not publicly faced any consequences for her involvement in the Russiagate investigation or improper FISA surveillance of Trump’s team. McCord added that the Department of Justice “always… followed the facts and the law, and did not target any person for investigation based on political reasons” throughout her tenure.
During the hearing Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., called out the DOJ’s political targeting of Donald Trump, particularly over the last four years.
” We’ve heard a lot about the recently discovered concern that my Democrat colleagues have about independence in the AG’s office,” Schmitt said. ” Given the last four years, it is ironic”.
According to Schmitt, Americans have lost” trust and faith in the Department of Justice because they have witnessed exactly what happened over the past four years, which was a very obvious attempt to try to jail a political opponent.”
He praised Bondi and said, “what she can do]to try and restore credibility to an organization that has been politicized and weaponized” to “get it back to its core function, which is objectively administering justice and taking on violent crime.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer who writes about the integrity of elections. He is a The College Fix spring 2025 fellow. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan grew up in rural Michigan but is originally from Central Oregon.
