The approach adopted Tuesday by Pam Bondi to answer the hostile questions posed by the Democrats to the Senate judicial commission on the perceived political militarization of the Ministry of Justice was simple and brutal: do not answer, simply attack.
Ms. Bondi, who openly challenged the Democrats in the Committee, tried to launch obstinate senatorial questions for more than four hours on the decisions taken under his direction, as a defense injured by President Trump, of herself and other people appointed by the administration.
The emphasis of Ms. Bondi reflects, to a large extent, a coordinated effort within the Trump administration to transform potentially damaging – or revealing – of public responsibility for opportunities to brutalize political opponents.
Senator Richard J. Durbin de l’Illinois, the highest democrat of the committee, opened the question period by asking if the White House had consulted Ms. Bondi on the deployment of federal troops in Chicago. She ignored the question and rather raised her voice to accuse Mr. Durbin, a 28 -year -old veteran who paid billions of dollars to funding criminal justice to her state, of disloyalty to her voters.
“I would like you to love Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” she said.
Control hearings have always had political theater elements. But the approach adopted by Ms. Bondi, and previously by the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, was different from that adopted by each of their predecessors. It is characterized by a contemptuous refusal of superficially tackling the disturbing questions and by using attacks prepared against democrats to change the subject and suffocate criticism.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked her about the decision of the Ministry of Justice to abandon the investigation into Tom Homan, the Tsar of the Trump administration, which was recorded in September 2024 accepting a bag containing $ 50,000 in cash within the framework of a secret FBI investigation. “What has become of $ 50,000?” Asked Mr. Whitehouse.
Ms. Bondi refused to answer the question and rather attacked Mr. Whitehouse by demanding that he had accepted campaign donations from Reid Hoffman, a democratic donor that the Republicans have linked to the famous sexual trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
None of the Commission’s Republicans has rushed to provide answers.
