Democrats say that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s massive overhaul of the Justice Department “will take decades to recover from,” in the wake of a contentious Senate hearing with Bondi this week.
Bondi’s defensive and combative attitude during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, in which she repeatedly refused to answer Democrats’ questions, has left many concerned about the future of the department.
Under Bondi’s leadership, more than 4,500 Justice Department employees have left, task forces dedicated to probing criminal activity have been disbanded, resources have been re-allocated to support Trump’s targeting of political opponents and more.
But when questioned about her actions, such as closing a probe into Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and the forced resignation of a U.S. attorney in Virginia for refusing to indict Trump’s longtime opponent James Comey, Bondi refused to explain.
“I do think the damage she’s doing to the department will take decades to recover from,” Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California told The Hill Wednesday.
Schiff, a longtime target of Trump’s retribution for helping lead an impeachment inquiry into him in 2019, faced some of the most personal attacks from Bondi during her hearing as she refused to answer questions.
When Schiff asked Bondi about the department dropping the inquiry into Homan, the attorney general responded by asking him, “Will you apologize to Donald Trump for trying to impeach him?”
Schiff told The Hill that Bondi’s “slandering obstruction of oversight” was “unprecedented.”
Schiff’s concerns about the future of the department echo the same fears raised by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking member of the committee, during Bondi’s grilling.
“This is your legacy, Attorney General Bondi,” Durbin said at the end of his opening remark, after listing some of the actions Bondi has taken to dramatically reshape the Justice Department.
“In eight short months, you’ve fundamentally transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain on American history. It will take decades to recover,” Durbin added.
When Durbin asked Bondi if she had spoken with the White House about deploying the National Guard, Bondi refused to answer, claiming she would not speak about “internal” conversations. Bondi then told Durbin, “I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.”
Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware told CNN’s The Arena that the oversight hearing felt “more like a boxing ring.”
Although Bondi dug her heels in, Schiff told The Hill that the only way forward was to remain “focused on practical remedies.” However, it is unclear what exactly that means for Democrats.
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