Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called on Pam Bondi to make sure the Department of Justice’s targeting of political opponents over almost the last decade “never happens again” if she is confirmed as attorney general in the incoming Trump administration.
In the first confirmation hearing for former Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, Grassley slammed specific federal efforts including Operation Crossfire Hurricane, former President Barack Obama’s secret campaign to spy on Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election; the fake Steele Dossier which claimed Trump colluded with Russia; as well as the weaponization of the justice system against Trump and American citizens.
“The impact of this political infection in our one-story law enforcement institutions is catastrophic. By every metric, the Biden-Harris Justice Department conduct has failed to live up to our country’s ideals,” Grassley said. “Miss Bondi, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department’s course must be for accountability so that the conduct I just described never happens again.”
Grassley also highlighted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s “lawfare” against Trump, including the 2022 “unprecedented FBI raid on Trump’s house, including agents that even searched the former First Lady’s clothing drawers.”
“Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden certainly did not receive the same treatment by the government regarding their records,” Grassley said. “Indeed, as my oversight exposed, the FBI amazingly agreed to destroy laptop records and records associated with Clinton staff. This Orwellian conduct should have no quarter.”
Grassley also blasted the DOJ’s prosecution of Americans praying outside abortion clinics, as well as the department’s labeling of “traditional Catholics” as “domestic terrorism threats,” investigations into parents at school board meetings, and collusion with Big Tech to censor online speech as “misinformation.”
Grassley later called attention to a binder he said contained “144 oversight letters … sent to the Biden-Harris Justice Department and its component agencies.” He said the letters have either gone unanswered or officials “didn’t fully respond.” He asked Bondi if she would “commit to responding to his oversight requests, as well as those of other members of the committee.”
“Chairman, either I or my top staff will personally review the letters and do everything we can to respond to you,” Bondi replied.
Leftist Hypocrisy
Even after Grassley laid out the myriad ways in which Biden’s DOJ targeted political opponents, the Democrat senators repeatedly urged the importance of the DOJ’s “independence” and raised “concerns” about Trump potentially weaponizing the justice department. Bondi continually assured she would apply the law impartially.
For example, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., suggested Trump might “use the department to target his political adversaries” and “might interfere with prosecution.”
Using a hypothetical scenario, Coons asked Bondi what she would do “if your career DOJ prosecutors came to you with a case … grounded in the facts and law, but the White House directs you to drop [it]?”
“Every case will be prosecuted based on the facts and the law that is applied in good faith,” Bondi responded. “Politics have got to be taken out of the system. This department has been weaponized for years, and years, and years.”
Other Democrats held lockstep, pushing Bondi on the same points. After a series of questions, Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono asked, “[I]f President-elect Trump asks, suggests, or hints that you as attorney general should investigate one of his perceived political enemies, would you do so?”
Bondi noted that Sen. Hirono was “the only [senator] who refused to meet” with her prior to the hearing but said that, had they met, the two “would have discussed … it is the job of the Attorney General to follow the law.”
Hirono went on to claim that Trump “considers the agency’s office his law firm,” without mentioning how the DOJ has been acting as Biden’s personal political enforcer for years.
“I certainly have not heard the president say that, but what I will tell you is two-thirds of Americans have lost faith in the Department of Justice, and it’s statements like that, I believe, that make people continue to lose faith,” Bondi responded, as Hirono tried to interrupt. “If I am confirmed as attorney general, it will be my job to not only keep America safe, but restore integrity to that department.”
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. 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 is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
