The Senate voted 54-46 on Tuesday, largely along party lines, to confirm Pam Bondi as Attorney General of the Department of Justice.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat who voted to confirm Ms. Bondi.
Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, told lawmakers on the Senate floor before the vote that Ms. Bondi, Florida’s former Attorney General for eight years, is the “right choice” to lead the Justice Department.
“Ms. Bondi has been nominated to one of the most important offices in our country, and she’s shown that she’s up to that task,” Mr. Grassley said. “Her impressive record and presentation at her hearing are proof that she’s ready to take the helm of the Justice Department.”
Mr. Grassley said Ms. Bondi, 59, will be facing a Justice Department in crisis following her confirmation, including the Justice Department’s “political decision-making” in the Biden administration, and the politicized 7th floor at the FBI’s headquarters in Washington.
He listed the Justice Department’s targeting of traditional Catholics, concerned parents at school-board meetings and abortion protestors as examples.
“That’s right, my investigative staff – who at the time was investigating, at my direction, the government’s abuses in Crossfire Hurricane,” Mr. Grassley said as another example.
Mr. Grassley also mentioned the FBI’s cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story, the sweetheart plea deals offered by the Justice Department to Hunter Biden in a criminal case, and the FBI’s “inappropriate” briefing to him and Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, during their Biden family investigation that was later leaked.
“And nothing’s supposed to be leaked from, what we call, the ‘SCIF,’” Mr. Grassley said, referring to a secure room where lawmakers review classified information.
The Iowa Republican rounded off the list of issues at the Justice Department and FBI, calling former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of President Trump a “lawfare operation” as just an attempt to “put now-President Trump in jail.”
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee warned that Ms. Bondi, who offered legal advice to Mr. Trump following the 2020 election, could not do the job of Attorney General in a fair manner and would only aid the president in targeting his political enemies.
“President Trump has repeatedly made it clear that he values loyalty above all else in an Attorney General,” said the top committee Democrat, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. “Don’t take my word for it. Just look at what happened in his first term. He fired his first Attorney General and forced out his second for insufficient loyalty.”
“And President Trump has said time and again that he expects the Justice Department to seek ‘retribution’ on his behalf. With Ms. Bondi, I’m afraid, the president has finally found someone who passes his loyalty test,” he said.
Mr. Durbin warned that the Trump administration has been forcing out dozens of Justice Department and FBI officials recently, and the administration is now threatening the jobs of more employees across the country who worked on investigations related to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The Trump administration’s purge of these officials is a naked political move. In firing a dozen career prosecutors, the Acting Attorney General issued a memo stating, ‘Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe the leadership of the Department can trust you,’” Mr. Durbin said. “I fear that Ms. Bondi will only protect and remain faithful to one person throughout this whole experience—and that’s the president who has given her this opportunity.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.