Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s nominee to guide the Division of Justice, was concerned in a pointy conflict with Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Wednesday because the California senator quizzed Bondi over whether or not she would prosecute Trump’s political opponents.
Schiff, a vocal critic of the president-elect, requested Bondi about whether or not she would examine former Particular Counsel Jack Smith and in addition former Rep. Liz Cheney.
“I’m asking you sitting here today whether you are aware of a factual predicate to investigate Liz Cheney,” he mentioned.
‘MASTERCLASS’: BONDI FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM SENATOR AFTER SUGGESTING SHE WILL WEAPONIZE DOJ
Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s alternative to guide the Justice Division as lawyer normal, seems earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee for her affirmation listening to on the Capitol on Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Picture/Ben Curtis)
“Senator, no one asked me to investigate Liz Cheney, that is a hypothetical,” she mentioned.
She then turned the tables on Schiff, noting the crime fee in California.
“You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California is through the roof. Your robberies are 87% higher than the national average,” she mentioned. “That’s what I want to focus on, senator.”
Schiff mentioned that Bondi’s solutions instructed she doesn’t have the independence to say “no” to the president. He then requested her if she would inform Trump he misplaced the 2020 election. Bondi accused Schiff of “playing politics” and of leaking Rep. Devin Nunes’ memo.
“What I can tell you is I will never play politics, you’re trying to engage me in a gotcha,” she mentioned.
Then-Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks to reporters as he departs the ultimate assembly of the Home Choose Committee to Examine the January 6 Assault on the U.S. Capitol within the Canon Home Workplace Constructing in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Pictures)
Schiff shot again, asking her if she would advise towards blanket pardons by President-elect Trump and suggesting she wouldn’t be capable to have a look at each file on day one.
“You’ll be able to review hundreds of cases on day one. … Of course you won’t,” Schiff mentioned.
Bondi was livid at Schiff’s feedback.
“I’m not going to mislead this body or you, you were censured by Congress, senator, for comments just like this that are so reckless,” she mentioned.
Schiff was censured in 2023 for selling claims that Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign colluded with Russia, a vote that made Schiff simply the third member of the Home to be censured because the flip of the century.
The incident was considered one of numerous sharp exchanges that the previous Florida AG had with Democrat lawmakers. She was requested by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., in regards to the weaponization of the DOJ.
“It would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime?” Whitehouse mentioned throughout his line of questioning. “It’s a prosecutor’s job to start with a crime and look for a name. Correct?”
Bondi responded by highlighting the federal authorities’s investigations into Trump.
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“Senator, I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump,” Bondi mentioned.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/0cec471136fc587d26e0c45dc0dee7ee/Drought%20Falcon%20Reservoir%20REUTERS%20TT%2002.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Texas has an enormous water downside. This state lawmaker hopes he has the answer.")
