Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi denied Wednesday that the Justice Department will maintain an “enemies list” to seek revenge against political rivals, as Democrats questioned her during her Senate confirmation hearing—but the prosecutor defended the choice of Kash Patel as the next FBI director, despite him previously vowing to go after his and Trump’s foes.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in ... [+]
The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Bondi Wednesday as part of her confirmation process as attorney general, with Democrats particularly grilling Bondi about her plans for the department in light of Trump’s vows to “come after” his political rivals.
Democrats also questioned her about Patel, a former Trump-era intelligence official who’s drawn controversy in part for vowing to overhaul the FBI and go after his political enemies—detailing those opponents in his 2023 book, which included a list of what Patel called “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State,” people whom he believes were “corrupt actors” in the first Trump administration.
Bondi said Wednesday she was not familiar with Patel’s comments, but told senators, “There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice” if she is attorney general.
The former Florida attorney general defended Patel’s nomination, however, saying she believes Patel “is the right person at this time for this job” and noting he “was a career prosecutor, he was a career public defender, and he also has great experience within the intelligence community.”
Bondi said she was unfamiliar with some of the brasher claims Patel has made—including saying he wants to dismantle the FBI’s headquarters—but noted the FBI nominee would be working under her within the DOJ, saying Patel “will follow the law if I am the attorney general of the United States of America, and I don’t believe he would do anything otherwise.”
Bondi broadly declined to respond to statements Trump has similarly made suggesting he wants to take action against his political enemies, claiming she was unfamiliar with his comments, but said she does not want to “weaponize” the DOJ and argued she will not “politicize” her office and “will not target people because of their political affiliation.”
Bondi is widely expected to be easily confirmed as Trump’s attorney general, viewed as one of the president-elect’s more qualified Cabinet picks due to her broad experience as a prosecutor. Patel has not yet faced his confirmation hearing for FBI director but is expected to be a more controversial choice—though Trump insiders cited by Politico in December said they expected more pushback to Patel’s nomination from GOP senators than they had actually so far received.
One of Democrats’ primary concerns during Bondi’s confirmation hearing Wednesday was whether the attorney general nominee would remain independent or follow Trump’s orders to go after his enemies, citing concerns that Trump wanted an attorney general who won’t push back and would agree even to requests that may be illegal. “At issue is not your competence nor your experience. At issue is your ability to say no,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Bondi. The nominee did not explicitly say whether or not she would be willing to say no to Trump if he asked her to do something she disagreed with, but said her DOJ would follow a longstanding policy that limits communications between the agency and the White House, and emphasized her interest in following the rule of law.