Sparks flew on Wednesday when Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi tangled with Sen. Adam Schiff, who demanded to know if she would open an investigation into President-elect Donald Trump’s political opponents and whether she believes Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.
Ms. Bondi refused to say whether she would open an investigation into former special counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted Mr. Trump over charges related to election interference and mishandling classified documents, or former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who co-led the panel that investigated Mr. Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
“I haven’t seen the file. I haven’t seen the investigation. I haven’t looked at anything. It would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment regarding anything,” Ms. Bondi said of investigating Mr. Smith. “I will look at the facts and the circumstances.”
Mr. Schiff, California Democrat and longtime Trump foe, shot back, “You’re not a part of the Department yet. There’s no worry about divulging law enforcement sensitive information. So just tell us, are you aware of a factual predicate to investigate Jack Smith, yes or no?”
Ms. Bondi began to answer by saying, “What I am hearing in the news,” but Mr. Schiff interrupted her, saying, “You seem reluctant to answer a simple question.”
“Let me ask you a different simple question. The president also wants to jail Liz Cheney,” Mr. Schiff said. “Sitting here today, are you aware of any factual basis to investigate Liz Cheney? Yes or no?”
Ms. Bondi said that the question was hypothetical, so she could not respond to it.
Mr. Schiff replied in apparent exasperation, “Hypothetical? I’m asking you sitting here today whether you are aware of a factual predicate to investigate Liz Cheney.”
Ms. Bondi said, “No one is asking to investigate Liz Cheney. That is a hypothetical.”
Mr. Schiff responded, “[Mr. Trump] has called for it publicly. You are aware of that, aren’t you?”
Both went back and forth until Ms. Bondi asked why Mr. Schiff was not more interested in talking about California’s rising crime.
Mr. Schiff then asked if she could be independent of Mr. Trump and if she could say “no” to him.
“Can you tell him that [he] lost the 2020 election? Can you say that? Do you have the independence to say that you have the gravitas, the stature, the intestinal fortitude to say, ’Donald Trump, you lost the 2020, election,’” he said. “Can you tell us that here today?”
Ms. Bondi said, “Senator, what I can tell you is, I will never play politics. You’re trying to engage me in a gotcha.”
Mr. Schiff retorted, “If you can speak truth to power.”
Ms. Bondi interrupted Mr. Schiff and said sarcastically, “Like you did when you leaked your colleague’s Devin Nunes’ memo?” It was a reference to an episode in 2018, when Mr. Schiff was serving on the House Select Intelligence Committee with Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican.
Mr. Schiff had leaked the Nunes memo, which revealed the panel’s findings that the FBI obtained surveillance warrants from the secret FISA court against former Trump staffer Carter Page during the 2016 presidential campaign. But Mr. Schiff and committee Democrats then released their own summary and falsely claimed that “FBI and DOJ officials did not ’abuse’ the [FISA] process, omit material information or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.”
Mr. Schiff tried again and asked Ms. Bondi if there was “massive fraud affecting the result of the 2020 election.”
Ms. Bondi attempted to tell Mr. Schiff what she saw in Pennsylvania, but Mr. Schiff cut her off.
“I know you want to answer a different question, but my question is, can you tell us whether there was massive fraud affecting the results of the 2020 election? Yes or no?” he asked.
Ms. Bondi said she could only testify to what she saw when was an advocate for the campaign.
“That’s not my question. You can’t speak that even easy truth to us, let alone to the president,” Mr. Schiff said.
The lawmaker then asked whether she would object to Mr. Trump granting mass pardons to Jan. 6 defendants who were violent against law enforcement officers, to which she said she would look at each defendant on a case-by-case basis.
“Will it be your advice to the president, ’No, Mr. President, I need to go over them on a case-by-case basis. Do not issue blanket pardons.’ Will that be your advice to the president?’” he asked.
Ms. Bondi repeated she would look at every file, to which Mr. Schiff said, “of course you won’t.”
Ms. Bondi snapped, “What did you say? You said, ’of course you won’t?” Look, I’m not going to mislead this body.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.