WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. legal professional basic Tuesday night, placing a longtime ally of Donald Trump on the helm of a Justice Division that has already been rattled by the firings of profession staff seen as disloyal to the Republican president.
The vote fell nearly fully alongside celebration strains, with solely Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, becoming a member of with all Republicans to cross her affirmation 54-46.
Bondi, a former Florida legal professional basic and company lobbyist, is predicted to supervise a radical reshaping of the division that has been the goal of Trump’s ire over the prison instances it introduced in opposition to him. She enters with the FBI, which she is going to oversee, in turmoil over the scrutiny of brokers concerned in investigations associated to the president, who has made clear his want to hunt revenge on his perceived adversaries.
Republicans have praised Bondi as a extremely certified chief they contend will carry much-needed change to a division they imagine unfairly pursued Trump by means of investigations leading to two indictments.
“Pam Bondi has promised to get the department back to its core mission: prosecuting crime and protecting Americans from threats to their safety and their freedoms,” stated Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D.
However Bondi has confronted intense scrutiny over her shut relationship with the president, who throughout his time period fired an FBI director who refused to pledge loyalty to him and compelled out an legal professional basic who recused himself from the Justice Division’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Whereas Bondi has sought to reassure Democrats that politics would play no half in her decision-making, she additionally refused at her affirmation listening to final month to rule out potential investigations into Trump’s adversaries. And she or he has repeated Trump’s claims that the prosecutions in opposition to him amounted to political persecution, saying the Justice Division “had been weaponized for years and years and years, and it’s got to stop.”
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., praised Bondi as “accomplished and competent” however stated his “grave concern is really about President Trump and what he is clearly demanding.”
“That clearly is a loyalty oath to him as opposed to a demand for straightforward, candid advice, including if the president is asking for something to be done like the prosecution of a political adversary,” Welch stated.
Bondi’s affirmation vote got here simply hours after FBI brokers sued the Justice Division over efforts to develop a listing of staff concerned within the Jan. 6 prosecutions, which brokers concern may very well be a precursor to mass firings.
Performing Deputy Legal professional Basic Emil Bove final week ordered the performing FBI director to supply the names, titles and workplaces of all FBI staff who labored on the Jan. 6 instances — which Trump has described as a “grave national injustice.” Bove, who defended Trump in his prison instances earlier than becoming a member of the administration, stated Justice Division officers would perform a “review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
Justice Division officers have additionally just lately compelled out senior FBI executives, fired prosecutors on particular counsel Jack Smith’s group who investigated Trump and terminated a bunch of prosecutors within the D.C. U.S. legal professional’s workplace who have been employed to assist with the huge Jan. 6 investigation.
Bondi repeatedly burdened at her affirmation listening to that she wouldn’t pursue anybody for political causes, and vowed that the general public, not the president, could be her consumer. However her solutions at instances echoed Trump’s marketing campaign rhetoric a couple of politicized justice system.
“They targeted Donald Trump,” Bondi informed lawmakers. “They went after him — actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him.” She added, “If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”
Trump nominated Bondi for legal professional basic after it grew to become clear that his preliminary decide, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, couldn’t win sufficient help from Republican senators to be confirmed.
Bondi has been a fixture in Trump’s orbit for years, and a daily defender of the president-elect on information packages amid his authorized woes. In a 2023 Fox Information look, she recommended that “bad” Justice Division prosecutors could be investigated beneath the Trump administration.
“The investigators will be investigated,” she stated.
Smith has stated politics performed no half in his choices and the proof his group gathered was adequate for Trump to have been convicted at trial on fees of scheming to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
Smith dropped that case and a separate one charging Trump with illegally hoarding categorised paperwork at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Seashore, Florida, after Trump’s election win in November, citing longstanding Justice Division coverage prohibiting prison instances in opposition to a sitting president.
