{"id":3196,"date":"2025-10-08T10:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/08\/us-attorney-general-pam-bondi-clashes-with-critics-at-key-senate-hearing\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:36:20","slug":"us-attorney-general-pam-bondi-clashes-with-critics-at-key-senate-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/08\/us-attorney-general-pam-bondi-clashes-with-critics-at-key-senate-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"US Attorney General Pam Bondi clashes with critics at key Senate hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democrats on the Senate panel grilled her over her leadership of the Justice Department. She hit back, with GOP support.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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United States Attorney General Pam Bondi faced fierce questioning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, as Democrats accused her of politicising the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Republicans rallied behind her pledge to restore law enforcement\u2019s core mission.<\/p>\n

In her first appearance before the Republican-controlled committee since the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, Bondi on Tuesday defended the department\u2019s direction under her leadership, saying she came into office determined to end the \u201cweaponisation of justice\u201d and refocus on violent crime.<\/p>\n

She said the DOJ was now \u201creturning to our core mission of fighting real crime\u201d, pointing to increased federal activity in Washington, DC; and Memphis, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Bondi also defended the deployment of National Guard troops to cities like Chicago and Portland, saying local governments failed to protect citizens. She tied challenges in enforcing public safety to the ongoing government shutdown, blaming Democrats for undermining law enforcement readiness.<\/p>\n

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US Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, October 7, 2025 [AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the critical moments of the hearing came with Bondi\u2019s justification for prosecuting Comey, a longtime critic of US President Donald Trump. Comey faces charges of false statements and obstruction of Congress related to his 2020 congressional testimony, and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. Democrats pressed whether the indictment followed from independent prosecutorial judgement or political pressure. Bondi declined to answer questions about private conversations with the White House, calling them \u201cpersonnel matters\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Jeffrey Epstein files were another flashpoint in the hearing as Bondi repeatedly refused to explain her decision to reverse course on releasing documents. She instead accused Democratic senators of having accepted campaign donations from an affiliate of the late, convicted sex offender.<\/p>\n

Democrats also quizzed her on allegations that Trump\u2019s border czar, Tom Homan, accepted $50,000 in cash from undercover agents last year, before the current US administration came into office. Bondi said the decision to drop the inquiry preceded her tenure and declined to state whether the money had been recovered.<\/p>\n

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel, repeatedly accused Bondi of using her leadership to help weaponise the DOJ. \u201cOur nation\u2019s top law enforcement agency has become a shield for the president and his political allies when they engage in misconduct,\u201d he said. The Illinois senator claimed Bondi \u201cfundamentally transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain on American history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take decades to recover,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Under Bondi\u2019s leadership, key divisions such as civil rights have seen mass departures, and career prosecutors tied to investigations into Trump or the January 6 attack on the US Capitol have been removed or reassigned.<\/p>\n

A letter by nearly 300 former DOJ employees, released just before the hearing, warned that the administration was \u201ctaking a sledgehammer to other longstanding work\u201d and urged a return to institutional norms.<\/p>\n

Republicans on the committee largely defended her actions, echoing claims that the DOJ under the prior Biden administration \u2014 which brought two criminal cases against Trump \u2014 was the one that had been weaponised. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley commended Bondi for resetting priorities and asserted that law enforcement needed new direction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats on the Senate panel grilled her over her leadership of the Justice Department. She hit back, with GOP support. United States Attorney General Pam Bondi faced fierce questioning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, as Democrats accused her of politicising the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Republicans rallied behind her pledge to restore law … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}