Tempers flared and accusations flew in Washington, D.C., on October 7, 2025, as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing that laid bare the deep partisan fissures gripping the Justice Department and the nation at large. With the government mired in a shutdown and federal agencies posting messages blaming Democrats for the impasse, Bondi faced a barrage of questions about the politicization of justice under President Donald Trump’s administration and the targeting of his political adversaries.
From the outset, the hearing was fraught. According to CBC, Senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s top Democrat, wasted no time in lambasting Bondi for what he described as a systematic purge of career prosecutors and agents who had worked on cases opposed by Trump. Durbin charged that Bondi had “left an enormous stain on American history,” asserting, “It will take decades to recover.” The senator’s remarks set the combative tone for the session, which would see Bondi alternately defending her record and launching pointed counterattacks against her critics.
At the heart of the controversy was the Justice Department’s recent indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. As ABC News reported, the move to charge Comey—on two counts of making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional investigation—came after Trump removed Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Siebert had reportedly opposed prosecuting Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump then installed Lindsey Halligan, a former personal attorney and White House aide, who promptly moved the case forward. Comey, who has denied any wrongdoing, was scheduled to appear in court on October 8, 2025, for his arraignment.
Bondi, for her part, refused to say whether she had discussed prosecuting Comey with the president. When pressed by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar about a September 20 social media post in which Trump urged the attorney general to investigate three of his political enemies—including Comey—Bondi demurred, stating, “I don’t think [Trump] said anything he hasn’t said for years.” This evasiveness drew further ire from Democrats, who accused Bondi of stonewalling and protecting the president’s interests over the department’s independence.
The hearing also spotlighted the turmoil within the Justice Department itself. Michael Ben’Ary, a top national security prosecutor, was fired after posting misleading information on social media. In a scathing resignation letter, Ben’Ary accused the department’s leadership of prioritizing political retribution over national security, writing, “Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day.” According to ABC News, nearly 300 former DOJ employees released a letter on October 6, 2025, condemning Bondi’s leadership as “appalling” and calling for stronger Congressional oversight to check what they described as abuses of power.
Meanwhile, the broader political climate was no less charged. The government shutdown, which began in early October, was the subject of fierce debate and blame-shifting. As reported by NPR, federal agency websites and automated email responses began posting messages blaming the “Radical Left Democrat Shutdown,” a move that Democrats and federal worker unions argued violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits partisan political activity by government agencies. Todd Achilles, a former Idaho Democratic legislator, filed a formal complaint, stating, “We don’t play politics with public lands. The Forest Service exists to serve all Americans regardless of political affiliation.” The American Federation of Government Employees also took legal action, sending cease-and-desist letters and filing suit against the Department of Education for similar partisan messaging.
Bondi, however, doubled down on the administration’s rhetoric, blaming Democrats for the shutdown and criticizing both federal and state officials for not cooperating with the administration’s efforts to combat crime in major U.S. cities. In a particularly pointed exchange, she told Senator Durbin, “I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” highlighting the administration’s frustration with local resistance to federal intervention.
The hearing also delved into the Justice Department’s handling of other high-profile cases. Bondi faced questions from Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about a sting operation involving Tom Homan, Trump’s former deportations czar. The operation reportedly involved $50,000, and Whitehouse pressed Bondi on whether Homan had declared the money on his tax returns. Bondi sidestepped the question, instead pivoting to unrelated allegations about Whitehouse’s political donations, which the senator dismissed as “far-right internet talking points.”
Foreign policy and national security issues were not absent from the proceedings. Bondi was grilled by Delaware’s Chris Coons about the legal justification for recent deadly strikes on vessels in the Caribbean—actions not authorized by Congress. According to CNN, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel had provided legal context for the strikes, with the administration arguing that Venezuelan drug cartels posed an imminent threat to Americans. Bondi described Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a “narco terrorist” responsible for countless American deaths through the supply of fentanyl.
Republican senators, for their part, seized on recent revelations that the FBI had analyzed the phone records of several GOP lawmakers as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Missouri’s Josh Hawley declared, “We learned that the FBI tapped my phone!” Bondi characterized the pursuit of these records as “a historic betrayal of public trust,” warning, “This is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people’s faith in our law enforcement system.”
In the background, the issue of Jeffrey Epstein’s files continued to simmer. Democrats accused the administration of stonewalling the release of documents that might implicate Trump or his associates in Epstein’s activities. The Justice Department and FBI, however, maintained that no further releases were warranted and that there was no evidence suggesting others participated in or enabled Epstein’s abuse. As ABC News noted, efforts in the House to force the administration’s hand were stalled by the ongoing shutdown.
Bondi, in her public statements and testimony, steadfastly denied accusations that the Justice Department had become a tool of the White House. She argued that any claims of politicization paled in comparison to the special counsel investigations of Trump under the previous administration. “Whether you’re a former FBI director, whether you’re a former head of an intel community, whether you are current state and local elected official, whether you are a billionaire funding organizations to try to keep Donald Trump out of office—everything is on the table,” Bondi said in a recent Fox News appearance. “We will investigate and will end the weaponization—no longer will there be a two-tier system of justice.”
As the hearing concluded, it was clear that the battle lines over the future of the Justice Department—and the broader question of political accountability in Washington—remain sharply drawn. With both sides accusing the other of weaponizing the institutions of government, the stakes for American democracy have rarely felt higher.
