Almost every year, the attorney general reluctantly makes the trek to Capitol Hill for oversight hearings. The high-stakes ritual requires days of preparation: thick briefing books, mock Q&As and — as quietly as it’s kept — some coordination with congressional allies.
Attorney General Pam Bondi will make that traditional trek today, one of the seemingly few things she’ll do that’s in keeping with expectations. In eight short months, Bondi’s no-holds-barred, anything-for-Trump playbook has left the Justice Department in chaos. With today’s hearings, then, Congress has the chance to shine a bright light on how her Trump-first approach has compromised the Justice Department’s mission to uphold the rule of law, keep Americans safe and protect civil rights.
Her Trump-first approach has compromised the Justice Department’s mission to uphold the rule of law.
Bondi has a lot to answer for. Under her watch, the Justice Department stands accused of unjustly firing senior FBI executives, experienced prosecutors and other civil servants; it has sought to rewrite the narrative of the Jan. 6, 2001, attack on the U.S. Capitol; and it has opened investigative inquiries in the apparent absence of a factual pretext. Bondi reportedly informed the president that his name is in the Jeffrey Epstein files, the Justice Department hired a pardoned Jan. 6 protester who threatened law enforcement, and it shifted FBI resources from fighting domestic terrorism and child predator cases to immigration enforcement (traditionally the purview of other agencies).
The Justice Department’s indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, over the objections of career staff members and the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, further illustrates the weaponization of the Justice Department.
Bondi has also weakened the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and abandoned efforts to ban powerful devices that enable shooters to fire hundreds of rounds per minute; sought to build a national registration voter roll; approved corporate mergers over the objections of subordinates; rolled back Biden-era regulation that banned the Justice Department from using court orders, subpoenas and search warrants to go after reporters’ newsgathering records; and so much more.
As the minority party, Democrats have a limited ability to truly hold Bondi accountable. But the list above shows that she has given them plenty of things to ask about.
As someone who previously directed the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs, I’m often asked whether these hearings even matter. In Bondi’s case, the argument goes, she’ll simply deny all allegations of wrongdoing or impropriety, deflect criticism and attack any lawmaker who dares to question her judgment.
Those are all fair points, but these oversight hearings can still be relevant if Democrats approach them strategically. In a news cycle that moves faster than ever, hearings can refocus public attention on what truly matters. To be effective, Democrats must frame this historic moment clearly: tell compelling stories linking President Donald Trump’s corruption to the GOP leaders enabling it and show the public why it threatens the rule of law, public safety and their civil rights.
Because here’s the truth: The moment our country is in now is worse than Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power.
Nixon was surrounded by high-ranking executive branch officials who resisted his worst instincts. His attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than carry out his politically vindictive orders. A bipartisan delegation of congressional leaders, appalled at the president’s excesses, headed to the White House to demand the president’s resignation for interfering in criminal matters. And Nixon, knowing that he was about to be impeached, resigned.
There are fewer guardrails now. Trump, with the Republican-controlled Senate’s permission, installed an attorney general who is boldly carrying out his agenda and his partisan, political orders with gusto, regardless of what the facts are or what the law demands. Republican congressional leaders have capitulated. And the president himself has dug in. “I was the hunted and now I’m the hunter,” he crowed this summer.
The moment our country is in now is worse than Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power.
After Watergate, Congress and the Justice Department implemented several reforms to insulate the department from improper partisan and political decision-making in criminal matters. With few exceptions, these reforms have stood the test of time. Griffin Bell, who served as an attorney general during President Jimmy Carter’s term, captured the sentiment when he said the Justice Department “must be recognized by all citizens as a neutral zone, in which neither favor nor pressure nor politics is permitted to influence the administration of the law.”
We don’t have a neutral zone now. We have a staging ground for political warfare that would make the corrupt Nixon proud.
Democrats would do well to make the connections to Watergate clearly and repeatedly and make the case that Trump’s unqualified appointments and his disregard for the rule of law undermine the very principles upon which our democracy depends.
Bondi, of course, is adept at being evasive. She doesn’t have to answer any of the Democrats’ questions. But how she evades them can help shape public narratives.
Consider the questions she could face: You had a history of holding perpetrators of sexual violence accountable in Florida; why have you not met with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, many of them minors, who will be in Washington this week? Did you pre-approve the deputy attorney general’s two-day interview with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell or her transfer to a low-security prison? Do you agree with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that full transparency into the Epstein files is necessary?
When the history of this moment is written, congressional Republicans will have a starring role. They have abandoned their constitutional duty to provide oversight of the executive branch — rolling over instead of standing up, capitulating instead of defending Congress’ own prerogatives.
It wasn’t always this way. When eight U.S. attorneys lost their jobs amid political pressure during President George W. Bush’s administration, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, among others, called out then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Graham said Gonzales’ office “made up reasons” to fire people, and Cornyn called the dismissals “deplorable.”
When the history of this moment is written, congressional Republicans will have a starring role.
Such accountability feels unimaginable today. Most Republicans, including Graham and Cornyn, have looked the other way as Bondi — at the direction of Trump — politicizes criminal matters. Their silence is complicity.
Democrats would do well to remind voters that Republicans and Democrats once stood together to hold presidents — and their attorneys general — to account. That history makes it clear: Accountability isn’t partisan; it’s patriotic.
They must also be clear-eyed and disciplined. While Bondi alone is responsible for how she answers questions, Congress has a duty to confront her for the sake of the Justice Department and the health of our democracy.
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