6 days ago
14
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The session before a Senate panel featured more fireworks than facts as Democrats and the attorney general repeatedly clashed.
Oct. 7, 2025Updated 8:11 p.m. ET
Attorney General Pam Bondi spent more than four contentious hours on Tuesday testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she sparred repeatedly with Democrats over her handling of the Justice Department as President Trump erodes its independence and seeks prosecutions of his enemies.
Here are three key takeaways from the hearing.
Bondi put on a combative, cagey performance.
Ms. Bondi spent much of the hearing counterpunching against Democrats, who demanded answers about how she was overseeing a raft of politically sensitive cases, and the firings and resignations of prosecutors and F.B.I. agents who handled such cases. The hearing was far more confrontational than the last time she appeared before the committee in January.
Back then, Ms. Bondi pledged to run an independent Justice Department, but Democrats said her tenure in just nine months had shown that to be a hollow promise. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois accused her of leaving “an enormous stain in American history.”
When Mr. Durbin challenged the president’s decision to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Ms. Bondi replied, “I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.”
Democrats also repeatedly asked about the decision by Mr. Trump’s Justice Department to drop an investigation of the White House border czar, Tom Homan, who has denied committing any crimes.
In September 2024, Mr. Homan accepted a Cava bag with $50,000 cash in it, as part of an undercover F.B.I. investigation in which agents posed as businessmen seeking federal contracts, according to people familiar with the matter, who said there was an audio recording of the interaction.
