Donald Trump's choice for attorney general, Pam Bondi, vowed on Wednesday not to use the U.S. Justice Department to target people based on their politics, seeking to allay concerns the president-elect will use law enforcement to go after his opponents.
"There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice," Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation."
Bondi, 59, served as Florida's attorney general from 2011 to 2019, and helped defend Trump during his 2019 impeachment trial which ended in his acquittal on charges of pressuring Ukraine to investigate his rival, now-President Joe Biden.
Bondi criticized past investigations and prosecutions of Trump by the Justice Department, suggesting they were evidence of partisan "weaponization."
The Justice Department, during Biden's Democratic administration, brought two criminal cases against Trump over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and retaining classified documents. Both have since been dropped.
Trump has threatened to use the U.S. justice system to seek revenge against his political enemies when he returns to power.
"The concern is that weaponization of the Justice Department may well occur under your tenure," Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse told Bondi. "We want to make sure that's not the case, that you remain independent."
The Republican-majority Senate is evaluating a wave of cabinet picks, some controversial, ahead of Trump's return to office on Monday. Lawmakers held a fiery hearing with Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Tuesday, and are due on Thursday to hear from his choice for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent.
Bondi said she would evaluate potential pardons for those accused of taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol on a "case-by-case" basis if asked.
Trump has vowed to pardon at least some of the roughly 1,600 people criminally charged with taking part in the riot, but has suggested that those who were violent may not get a reprieve.
Bondi pledged to prioritize prosecuting violent crime, gangs, child sex abusers and drug traffickers, protecting the country from "terrorists and other foreign threats" and addressing "the overwhelming crisis at the border."
She added that she also will focus on protecting free speech, religious freedom and "the right to bear arms," and work to fix the Federal Bureau of Prisons which she said has suffered from "years of mismanagement, lack of funding, and low morale."
Top committee Republican Senator Chuck Grassley praised Bondi's experience.
"The Justice Department’s infected with political decision-making, while its leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality," Grassley said in his prepared opening statement. "Should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the Department’s course must be for accountability, so that the conduct I just described never happens again.
In 2013, while serving as Florida attorney general, Bondi declined to join with other states to investigate Trump University shortly after a political action committee supporting her campaign received a $25,000 donation from the Trump Foundation.
That for-profit Trump venture closed and in 2018 a federal judge signed off on a $25 million settlement to close lawsuits brought by former students claiming they were lured by false promises.
Bondi denied any connection between the donation and her decision not to investigate Trump University.
Following Trump's 2020 election defeat, she appeared at press conferences and on television shows where she echoed some of Trump's false claims about election fraud.
Bondi has also worked as a lobbyist for Ballard Partners since 2019.
Federal ethics rules generally require government employees to recuse themselves from participating in matters that could have a direct financial impact on them and for a period of time to recuse themselves from working on cases involving parties with whom they have personal or business relationships.
Bondi's current or former lobbying clients include the Dominican Republic, Qatar, Zimbabwe's foreign affairs minister and Kosovo, as well as Amazon.com AMZN.O, Fidelity, Carnival North America LLC CCL.N, Uber Technologies Inc UBER.N, Major League Baseball, General Motors GM.N, The GEO Group Inc GEO.N, Alden Torch Financial and the Major County Sheriffs of America.
Several of the companies, such as Uber, Amazon, Carnival and General Motors have been in the crosshairs of various Justice Department investigations during Biden's administration.
The GEO Group, a private prison company, has some outstanding contracts with the Justice Department, federal spending records show. Some of the law enforcement groups Bondi has lobbied for as recently as 2024 have members whose offices receive Justice Department grant funds.
