Grassley Opens Second Day of Hearings on Pam Bondi’s Nomination for Attorney General

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back for our second day of the hearing on Ms. Bondi's nomination for Attorney General. As I said yesterday, I want everyone to be able to watch the hearing without obstruction. If people stand up and block the views of others behind them, or if they speak out of turn, it's not fair or considerate to others, so officers will remove individuals, as they have previously.

Before we begin with opening statements from the panel, I want to go over a couple of housekeeping items and explain how we are going to proceed today.

I will give an opening statement and introduce the majority witnesses, and I will give the opportunity for Senator Durbin to provide an opening statement and introduce the minority witnesses. Then we will turn to our witnesses for their opening statements. Following their statements, we will begin with the first round of questions, in which each Senator will have five minutes.

Yesterday, we met here from 9:30 until about 3 p.m. so that every Senator, both Democrat and Republican, could question Ms. Bondi.

We heard from Senators Scott and Schmitt, who gave their strong endorsement of Ms. Bondi. Their introductions described her extensive experience, outstanding qualifications and character.

Yesterday's testimony showed that Ms. Bondi is certainly experienced and capable to serve as our nation's chief law enforcement officer at this critical time. She is very well qualified for the position-she served for 18 years as a prosecutor and eight years as Attorney General of the state of the Florida, the third most populous state in our country. She will enact desperately needed changes at a Department that has been politicized and weaponized to partisan ends. With almost 30 years of experience behind her, she will restore both morale and law and order to a Department badly in need of strong leadership. Her commitment to the rule of law emerged as a central themes of our discussion yesterday. And as I made clear in my opening statement, that is what I believe the Department and this country desperately needs.

Today, the purpose is to hear from an outside panel of witnesses, and we are grateful that they are here with us this morning.

I will go ahead and introduce the three majority witnesses, before I turn it over to Ranking Member Durbin to provide opening remarks and to introduce the minority witnesses.

First, is Mr. Dave Aronberg. Until just a few days ago, Mr. Aronberg was the elected Democrat State Attorney for Florida's 15th Judicial Circuit. He served in that role for three terms since he was elected in 2012. Mr. Aronberg also previously served in the Florida State Senate, and as a White House Fellow in both the Clinton and Bush administrations at the Treasury Department. He has known Ms. Bondi since 2010, when he ran to be the Attorney General of Florida-a position Ms. Bondi ultimately won. Notwithstanding their political differences, Ms. Bondi appointed Mr. Aronberg to be her "Drug Czar" to combat the opioid epidemic, and through that work he came to know Ms. Bondi well.

Second, we have Mr. Nicholas Cox, who is Florida's longest-serving Statewide Prosecutor. He has served in that role since 2011. In his capacity as statewide prosecutor, Mr. Cox focuses on cases involving human trafficking, drug abuse, fraud, organized crime, gang violence, cybercrimes and crimes against seniors. Mr. Cox also previously served as a member of the faculty at Stetson University College of Law, where he taught trial advocacy, consumer law, counseling and negotiation, and criminal procedure. Mr. Cox has extensive experience observing Ms. Bondi's work as a lawyer and administrator. Ms. Bondi began her legal career as an intern in his office and, while serving as Attorney General, she appointed him to his current office.

Third, we have Sheriff Emery Gainey, a career law enforcement officer with more than 40 years of experience. Sheriff Gainey has served as the Sheriff of two counties in Florida. When Ms. Bondi served as Attorney General, he served as her director of law enforcement and director of victim services. Through his work as a law enforcement officer in Florida, Sheriff Gainey is very familiar with Ms. Bondi's work with state, local and federal law enforcement, as well as her work to address drug abuse, fight human trafficking, and help victims of crime.

I now turn to Senator Durbin for his opening remarks, and to introduce the minority witnesses.

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