Democratic senators sparred with attorney general Pam Bondi over her handling of the Epstein files and Donald Trump’s nationwide deployments of national guard at a bitterly partisan Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Bondi’s appearance before the Senate judiciary committee was her first since being confirmed in February, and comes as the president steps up his crackdown on political opponents and Democratic-run cities nationwide.
While Republicans generally cheered her work at the hearing, which is ongoing, Democratic lawmakers pilloried Bondi for allegedly carrying out politicized prosecutions and blurring the traditional boundaries between the justice department and White House.
“What has taken place since January 20, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil,” said the committee’s top Democrat, Dick Durbin. “This is your legacy, attorney general, Bondi. In eight short months, you have fundamentally transformed the justice department and left an enormous stain in American history. It will take decades to recover.”
Bondi struck a partisan tone almost as soon as she began speaking, noting that federal law enforcement officers remain on the job “even when the government is otherwise shut down because of the Democrats”.
The hearing took place as Trump orders national guard troops into Chicago over the objections of the city’s leaders, and is also sending the California national guard to Portland after a federal judge blocked him from sending Oregon’s forces.
The state of Illinois has sued over the Chicago deployment, while California’s governor Gavin Newson said his state would ask a judge to stop its troops from being sent to Portland.
When Durbin, who represents Illinois, asked Bondi to explain her rationale for ordering national guard troops from other states into Chicago, she replied: “I wish you love Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.”
“If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will,” she added.
Durbin then turned to the investigation of alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and asked why Bondi had said earlier this year there was a list of his clients “sitting on my desk”.
“If you listen to my entire clip on that, I said I had not reviewed it yet,” she said.
The Democrat asked Bondi why there was no signature on a July justice department memo saying it had determined that Epstein died by suicide in 2019, no list of his clients existed and no further details about his case would be revealed.
Bondi replied by attacking Durbin, asking: “Did you take money from Reid Hoffman, campaign donations, who was a huge Epstein friend?”
Hoffman is a billionaire venture capitalist who donates to Democrats. He has acknowledged and apologized for collaborating with Epstein on fundraising, but denied being one of his clients.
“Eventually, you’re going to have to answer for your conduct,” Durbin warned. “You won’t do it today, but eventually you will.”
