Lisa Desjardins:
Well, Bondi is well-known in political circles and is a very close ally, longtime friend of president-elect Trump’s.
But in her own right, she has a lengthy legal resume. Let’s talk about it, 18 years as a prosecutor. She’s a former Florida attorney general for two terms. Among her priorities then was the fight against the opioid epidemic, as well as some conservative culture war issues.
Now, she served on the first impeachment defense team for president-elect Trump. Then she also more recently has done election-related legal work for pro-Trump groups, including filing lawsuits in the most recent election. She’s now nominated, of course, to be the top prosecutor in the country and the top law enforcement agent.
She would oversee the FBI itself. Most of all, this hearing was about the Republican concern and contention that the DOJ has become politically weaponized against the right. It’s a powerful agency, but the thing is, Democrats fear that, if she was in this office, that she could weaponize it the other way. So there’s a question of how the politics work here.
Bondi told senators what she sees as her priority.
Pam Bondi (R), U.S. Attorney General Nominee: My overriding objective will be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals.
