Attorney General Pam Bondi blasted Democrats on Tuesday for the government shutdown, accusing them of allowing an overriding hatred of President Trump to leave her law enforcement agents patrolling their cities without pay.

Ms. Bondi defended the decision to send National Guard troops to crime-plagued major cities and to surge immigration enforcement personnel to arrest and deport illegal immigrants from sanctuary jurisdictions. She challenged Democrats to join the effort.

“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” she told Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, who complained about the troops Mr. Trump sent to Chicago, who arrived outside the city Tuesday evening. “If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.”

During nearly five hours of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she fended off questions about a series of hot-button issues.

That included her knowledge of records from the investigation into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the legal justification for attacks on Venezuelan drug boats, and reports of White House border czar Tom Homan taking a $50,000 bribe in an undercover sting.

Instead, she decried past “weaponization” of the government against Republicans. She promised to see through an investigation into the FBI’s move to obtain private phone records of eight sitting Republican senators.

She called that a “historic betrayal of public trust.”

“This is the kind of conduct that shattered the American people’s faith in our government,” she said.

Ms. Bondi has overseen one of the more active Justice Departments, deploying law enforcement agents to cities and defending the president’s agenda in federal courts. She said she has seen a staggering amount of legal resistance from Mr. Trump’s opponents, with more than 400 lawsuits so far.

Despite a tsunami of setbacks in lower courts — she counted 90 temporary restraining orders issued — she said the administration is on a winning streak when cases get to the Supreme Court. She tallied 22 “victories” for Mr. Trump’s position.

“We have never ignored a court order,” she said. “And why would we?”

Ms. Bondi’s aggressive approach follows that of FBI Director Kash Patel last month. Mr. Patel testified to the same committee and batted around Democrats.

Ms. Bondi was, if anything, more combative than Mr. Patel. She challenged Democrats with her own allegations of their wrongdoing.

Prodded on the $50,000 bribe Democrats said Mr. Homan took, Ms. Bondi said the FBI cleared the White House aide of any criminal wrongdoing.

Democrats picked at the issue anyway and wondered whether Mr. Homan kept the money or reported it on his taxes.

Ms. Bondi said the investigation was completed before she was sworn into office, and she referred questions to the FBI.

Sen. Peter Welch, Vermont Democrat, asked whether Ms. Bondi would confirm news reports that a video captured the cash handoff.

“I don’t know the answer,” she said.

“You do know the answer,” he replied.

“Don’t call me a liar,” she sniped back.

At another point, she said she wouldn’t be lectured by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, who asked about what he suggested were politically tainted antitrust prosecution decisions.

“I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service,” Ms. Bondi said.

Mr. Blumenthal served in the Marine Corps but did not fight in Vietnam, though he wrongly claimed to have done so.

Democrats complained that Ms. Bondi wasn’t answering their questions, but she was an equal-opportunity refuser. She declined to be drawn out when Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican and one of the eight senators whose records the FBI sought, demanded to know who ordered the collection.

“I cannot discuss the details of that right now, for very good reason,” she said.

Ms. Bondi declined to say whether Mr. Trump had privately prodded her to charge former FBI Director James B. Comey. She said she wouldn’t reveal her communications with her boss.

She was asked to reconcile her earlier statement that she had the Epstein client list “on her desk” with the department’s announcement in July that there was no such list.

Ms. Bondi told Mr. Durbin she hadn’t looked at the documents when she made the initial comments.

Mr. Durbin also prodded Ms. Bondi over the legal justification for deploying the National Guard to Chicago, which drew her barbed reply about his “hate” for the president.

“I’ve been on this committee for more than 20 years. That’s the kind of testimony you expect from this administration,” Mr. Durbin replied. “A simple question as to whether or not they had a legal rationale for deploying National Guard troops becomes grounds for personal attack.”

Ms. Bondi said Chicago needs the help.

“Your city has a murder rate five times higher than New York’s: 571 homicides last year,” she said. “If you were serious about protecting your people, you would be asking this administration for help.”

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.