Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies at Senate hearing on oversight of DOJ

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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, gaveled in the hearing just before 9:15 a.m. 

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The hearing also comes after news emerged Monday that the FBI analyzed the phone records of more than a half dozen Republican lawmakers as part of an investigation into efforts by the president and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

The records, which the FBI analyzed in 2023, enabled investigators to see basic information about the date and time of phone calls but not the content of the communications, GOP senators said. The data encompassed several days during the week of Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the certification of the election results. 

A document dated Sept. 27, 2023, lists nine Republican lawmakers whose records were allegedly scrutinized: Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. 

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Bondi, 59, worked as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office before becoming Florida’s first female attorney general. She served in the state attorney general role from 2011 to 2019.

A longtime ally of Mr. Trump, Bondi worked on his first transition team and was floated as a possible candidate for top law enforcement post during his first administration. She also worked on Mr. Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020 and would go on to work as a chairwoman of America First Policy Institute, which played a role in Mr. Trump’s 2024 election effort. 

Mr. Trump’s selection of Bondi for attorney general came after his first pick, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration as the Senate was set to consider his nomination. 

As attorney general, Bondi has been at the forefront of the administration’s legal fights, most notably on immigration. The Justice Department has taken legal action against “sanctuary” cities and states that have resisted the administration’s mass deportation efforts, although most of those suits remain unresolved.

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Bondi will face questioning from a slate of Democrats who have asked for her department’s records on the ongoing investigations into Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Sen. Adam Schiff, all vocal Trump critics.

Investigations into the three have created turmoil in U.S. attorney’s offices across the country, resulting in firings and resignations. Earlier this month, the Justice Department fired two of the highest-level prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Comey was indicted. Those firings came days after Mr. Trump removed his own appointee, Erik Siebert, as U.S. attorney in eastern Virginia, and installed White House aide Lindsey Halligan to be the new federal prosecutor. Halligan successfully secured a grand jury indictment of Comey days later. 

Staff in the U.S. Attorney’s Office had circulated a memo arguing the charges shouldn’t be brought, CBS News has reported. 

Comey was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding, an unprecedented move that came after the president publicly pressured Bondi to look into his longtime adversary. A grand jury voted to indict him on Sept. 25. Hours later, Comey was issued a summons directing him to appear in federal court in northern Virginia on Wednesday.

Sources have also told CBS News that the FBI is considering carrying out a “showy” arrest and perp walk of Comey, and has suspended an agent who refused to participate in the plan.

A group of more than 280 former Justice Department employees who were fired or resigned under the second Trump administration warned ahead of Tuesday’s hearing that the Justice Department “cannot uphold the rule of law when it carries out the President’s retribution campaign and protects his allies.” The group called on Congress to “exercise its oversight responsibilities far more vigorously.”

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An effort to force a House vote on a measure that would compel the Justice Department to release materials related to Epstein has stalled in recent weeks as the House has remained away from Washington, though the member-driven push is on the verge of succeeding once lawmakers return.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California have been leading the effort, known as a discharge petition, to force the vote. House GOP leaders have opposed putting the legislation on the floor, arguing it doesn’t do enough to protect victims. Though leaders control what receives a vote, a discharge petition enables members of the lower chamber to bypass leadership if they can get a majority of members, 218, to sign on.

The petition currently stands at 217 signatures, including all Democrats and four Republicans. And the House’s newest member, Adelita Grijalva, won a special election last month and is expected to deliver the final signature. But her swearing-in has been delayed with the House in recess. Massie has accused House Speaker Mike Johnson of “doing everything he can” to block a vote on the bill. Johnson has said Grijalva will be sworn in once the House returns.

In July, Khanna and Massie introduced the underlying measure, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that would require the Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days. The bill came as pressure intensified on the Trump administration to release more Epstein-related files after the Justice Department issued the findings of an internal review in July that found no “client list” or evidence that Epstein had blackmailed prominent figures.

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