By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as U.S. lawyer common 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 virtually solely alongside social gathering 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 common 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 instances 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 carry much-needed change to a division they consider unfairly pursued Trump by way of investigations leading to two indictments.
“Pam Bondi has promised to get the department back to its core mission: prosecuting crime and protecting Americans from threats to their safety and their freedoms,” stated 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 common 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 got to stop.”
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., praised Bondi as “accomplished and competent” however stated his “grave concern is really about President Trump and what he is clearly demanding.”
“That clearly is a loyalty oath to him as opposed to a demand for straightforward, candid advice, including if the president is asking for something to be done like the prosecution of a political adversary,” Welch stated.
Bondi’s affirmation vote got here simply hours after FBI brokers sued the Justice Division over efforts to develop an inventory of workers concerned within the Jan. 6 prosecutions, which brokers worry may very well be a precursor to mass firings.
Performing Deputy Legal professional Common Emil Bove final week ordered the performing FBI director to offer the names, titles and workplaces of all FBI workers who labored on the Jan. 6 instances — which Trump has described as a “grave national injustice.” Bove, who defended Trump in his felony instances earlier than becoming a member of the administration, stated Justice Division officers would perform a “review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”
Justice Division officers have additionally just lately compelled out senior FBI executives, fired prosecutors on particular counsel Jack Smith’s staff who investigated Trump and terminated a gaggle 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 burdened at her affirmation listening to that she wouldn’t pursue anybody for political causes, and vowed that the general public, not the president, can be her consumer. However her solutions at instances echoed Trump’s marketing campaign rhetoric a few politicized justice system.
“They targeted Donald Trump,” Bondi instructed lawmakers. “They went after him — actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him.” She added, “If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”
Trump nominated Bondi for lawyer common after it turned clear that his preliminary choose, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, couldn’t win sufficient help from Republican senators to be confirmed.
“The investigators will be investigated,” she stated.
Smith has stated politics performed no half in his selections and the proof his staff gathered was adequate for Trump to have been convicted at trial on fees 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 instances in opposition to a sitting president.
