Oct. 7 (UPI) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday about prosecution of President Donald Trump’s political rivals and the release of the Epstein files.
The hearing is just two weeks after she sought and secured an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey at the direction of the president. Democrats have said she’s weaponizing the Department of Justice, breaking with the longstanding tradition of keeping the department independent of political goals.
Comey was indicted on one count each of lying to Congress and obstructing justice for his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020. Before the indictment, U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert refused to indict because of a lack of evidence against Comey. Trump accused him of waiting too long to indict and nearly allowing the statute of limitations to run out. Siebert resigned under pressure from the administration.
Trump has demanded other investigations against his enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; former CIA Director John Brennan and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Last week, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the targeting of Trump’s political enemies is “a code-red alarm for the rule of law” in a floor speech, The Washington Post reported.
“Never in the history of our country has a president so brazenly demanded the baseless prosecution of his rivals,” he said. “And he doesn’t even try to hide it.”
But Republicans claim that Bondi’s leadership is necessary after years of what they say was politicized attacks from the Justice Department under the President Joe Biden administration.
“If the facts and the evidence support the finding that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed our work, he ought to be held accountable,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Since Bondi took over at the Justice Department, she and her team have fired prosecutors who worked on capitol riot cases and pushed out career FBI agents.
The Public Integrity Section is nearly empty now, and more than 70% of the lawyers in the Civil Rights Division are also gone, NPR reported.
During her confirmation hearing, she vowed that weaponization of the Justice Department over.
“I will not politicize that office,” Bondi said at the time. “I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”
In a letter Monday, nearly 300 former Justice Department employees asked the Oversight Committee to closely monitor the department.
“We call on Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities far more vigorously. Members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle must provide a meaningful check on the abuses we’re witnessing,” the letter said.
The letter also alleged poor treatment of staff.
“As for its treatment of its employees, the current leadership’s behavior has been appalling. … And demonizing, firing, demoting, involuntarily transferring, and directing employees to violate their ethical duties has already caused an exodus of over 5,000 of us — draining the Department of priceless institutional knowledge and expertise, and impairing its historical success in recruiting top talent. We may feel the effects of this for generations.”
The Senate panel is also likely to ask Bondi about the Jeffrey Epstein files. The FBI has opted not to release more information from the files of the case against the convicted sex trafficker, and Republicans and Democrats have pushed for more transparency.
“This issue is not going away,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., said to FBI Director Kash Patel in an oversight hearing last month. “You’re going to have to do more to satisfy the American people.”