WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. lawyer normal Tuesday night, placing a longtime ally of Donald Trump on the helm of a Justice Division that has already been rattled by the firings of profession workers seen as disloyal to the Republican president.
The vote fell nearly totally alongside celebration traces, with solely Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, becoming a member of with all Republicans to cross her affirmation 54-46.
Bondi, a former Florida lawyer normal and company lobbyist, is anticipated to supervise a radical reshaping of the division that has been the goal of Trump’s ire over the felony circumstances it introduced in opposition to him. She enters with the FBI, which she’s going to oversee, in turmoil over the scrutiny of brokers concerned in investigations associated to the president, who has made clear his need to hunt revenge on his perceived adversaries.
Republicans have praised Bondi as a extremely certified chief they contend will convey much-needed change to a division they imagine unfairly pursued Trump by investigations leading to two indictments.
“Pam Bondi has promised to get the division again to its core mission: prosecuting crime and defending Individuals from threats to their security and their freedoms,” mentioned Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D.
However Bondi has confronted intense scrutiny over her shut relationship with the president, who throughout his time period fired an FBI director who refused to pledge loyalty to him and compelled out an lawyer normal who recused himself from the Justice Division’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Whereas Bondi has sought to reassure Democrats that politics would play no half in her decision-making, she additionally refused at her affirmation listening to final month to rule potential investigations into Trump’s adversaries. And he or she has repeated Trump’s claims that the prosecutions in opposition to him amounted to political persecution, saying the Justice Division “had been weaponized for years and years and years, and it’s received to cease.”
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., praised Bondi as “achieved and competent” however mentioned his “grave concern is actually about President Trump and what he’s clearly demanding.”
“That clearly is a loyalty oath to him versus a requirement for easy, candid recommendation, together with if the president is asking for one thing to be executed just like the prosecution of a political adversary,” Welch mentioned.
Bondi’s affirmation vote got here simply hours after FBI brokers sued the Justice Division over efforts to develop a listing of workers concerned within the Jan. 6 prosecutions, which brokers concern might be a precursor to mass firings.
Appearing Deputy Legal professional Normal Emil Bove final week ordered the appearing FBI director to offer the names, titles and workplaces of all FBI workers who labored on the Jan. 6 circumstances — which Trump has described as a “grave nationwide injustice.” Bove, who defended Trump in his felony circumstances earlier than becoming a member of the administration, mentioned Justice Division officers would perform a “evaluate course of to find out whether or not any extra personnel actions are obligatory.”
Justice Division officers have additionally lately compelled out senior FBI executives, fired prosecutors on particular counsel Jack Smith’s workforce who investigated Trump and terminated a bunch of prosecutors within the D.C. U.S. lawyer’s workplace who have been employed to assist with the large Jan. 6 investigation.
Bondi repeatedly harassed at her affirmation listening to that she wouldn’t pursue anybody for political causes, and vowed that the general public, not the president, could be her shopper. However her solutions at instances echoed Trump’s marketing campaign rhetoric a few politicized justice system.
“They focused Donald Trump,” Bondi instructed lawmakers. “They went after him — truly beginning again in 2016, they focused his marketing campaign. They’ve launched numerous investigations in opposition to him.” She added, “If I’m lawyer normal, I can’t politicize that workplace.”
Trump nominated Bondi for lawyer normal after it grew to become clear that his preliminary choose, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, couldn’t win sufficient help from Republican senators to be confirmed.
Bondi has been a fixture in Trump’s orbit for years, and a daily defender of the president-elect on information applications amid his authorized woes. In a 2023 Fox Information look, she advised that “unhealthy” Justice Division prosecutors could be investigated below the Trump administration.
“The investigators can be investigated,” she mentioned.
Smith has mentioned politics performed no half in his selections and the proof his workforce gathered was ample for Trump to have been convicted at trial on costs of scheming to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
Smith dropped that case and a separate one charging Trump with illegally hoarding labeled paperwork at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Seaside, Florida, after Trump’s election win in November, citing longstanding Justice Division coverage prohibiting felony circumstances in opposition to a sitting president.
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