Grassley Opening Statement on the Nomination of Pam Bondi

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee

Hearing on "The Nomination of the Honorable Pamela Jo Bondi to be Attorney General of the United States"

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to this very important hearing to consider the nomination of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as the 87th Attorney General of the United States. Congratulations on your nomination, Ms. Bondi, and thank you for your willingness to serve.

I want to thank Senator Durbin for his leadership as Chairman of the Committee for the last four years. Although he and I have many differences on policy, we've worked well together on many issues over the years. As he steps into the role of Ranking Member of the Committee, I look forward to working closely with him to serve the American people.

I'd also like to welcome the new Members to this Committee, Senators Britt, Schmitt, Crapo and Schiff. I look forward to working with each of you.

Before we get started, I want to set out a couple ground rules. I'm going to handle this hearing using a similar structure to how Chairman Durbin handled the nomination hearing of Attorney General Garland. I want everyone here to be able to watch the hearing without obstruction. If people stand up and block the view of those behind them, or speak out of turn, it's not fair or considerate to others, so officers will immediately remove those individuals.

Now, before I turn to my opening statement, let me explain how we're going to proceed today.

I'll give my opening remarks, and then I'll invite Ranking Member Durbin to give opening remarks. Then I'll call on Senators Scott and Schmitt to introduce the nominee. Following those introductions and Ms. Bondi's statement, we'll begin the first round of questions. Each Senator will have an initial seven-minute round for questions. After the first round, we'll do a second, four-minute round of questions. I ask Members to do their best to adhere to these time limits, so that we can proceed efficiently with the hearing.

With that, I'll turn to my opening remarks.

We're here today to consider the nomination of Pam Bondi to serve as the Attorney General of the United States.

Ms. Bondi-thank you for being here today. You're nominated to one of the most important offices in our country, and it took a lot just to get here today. The more than 14,000 pages of records, hundreds of hours of media files, and more than 3,400 responsive entries you disclosed to this committee are a testament to your long career in the public eye and your cooperation with this Committee. I'd also like to thank your family for coming. I know some of them traveled to be here and I know they are very proud of you.

I'd like to say at the beginning of this hearing, that I expect Ms. Bondi to be treated fairly by my colleagues.

During Attorney General Garland's confirmation hearing, Republicans treated him with respect, asked tough but fair questions, and ultimately voted him out of committee on a bipartisan basis. Although Attorney General Garland wasn't who we would've chosen to lead the DOJ, we recognized that President Biden won the election, and that he was entitled to choose his Attorney General.

We were ultimately greatly disappointed with Attorney General Garland, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt.

As the recent terrorist attacks in New Orleans and around the world have shown, our national security is a high priority. The American people deserve a secure homeland and borders, safe streets, orderly markets, civil rights, and a protected environment. Delivering on these promises requires the swift confirmation of an Attorney General. This Committee should give Ms. Bondi the same benefit of the doubt it gave AG Garland.

President Trump has selected a nominee whose qualifications speak for themselves. Ms. Bondi made history in 2010 as the first woman elected to be Florida Attorney General. She held this role for eight years, from 2011 to 2019, and was comfortably reelected by the people of Florida in 2014 to a second term.

Eight years of service as the Attorney General of the third largest state in the Union is excellent preparation for the role of Attorney General of the United States. As the Florida Attorney General, Ms. Bondi was a member of the Florida cabinet, the chief legal officer for the State, and led a large agency that tangibly impacted people's lives. And by all accounts, Ms. Bondi handled her responsibilities well.

As the Florida Attorney General, Ms. Bondi achieved numerous successes. She engaged in key initiatives to fight human trafficking, counter the opioid epidemic, protect consumers, and protect the citizens of Florida from violence.

She didn't shy away from hard work or complicated problems. She engaged in an aggressive campaign to eliminate pill mills, took a leading role in securing a $3.25 billion settlement following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and eliminated the backlog of rape test kits that had accumulated in state laboratories.

Ms. Bondi's experience isn't limited to her service as Florida Attorney General. She also served as a prosecutor in Hillsborough County for 18 years and prosecuted terrible crimes. She sought tough penalties and justice for victims of violent criminals, domestic abusers, and sexual predators. She prosecuted drug traffickers, and helped protect her community. She was also active outside of her professional role, serving in the Junior League of Tampa, on the board of the Special Olympics Florida, and she is well-known for her animal rescue efforts.

Her experience and performance as Attorney General, prosecutor, and community leader speak volumes about her character and her dedication to the rule of law. She's received multiple letters in support of her nomination, including from the Fraternal Order of Police, the Republican State Attorneys General, more than 100 former senior DOJ officials, and a bipartisan group of former state attorneys general.

In short, Ms. Bondi's a highly qualified choice. And change is desperately needed.

When confirmed, Ms. Bondi will take the helm at a turbulent time. The Justice Department's infected with political decision-making, while its leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality.

Crossfire Hurricane was a textbook example of government weaponization.

That FBI investigation was built on the fake Steele Dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton Campaign who worked with foreign operatives.

My investigative work exposed that the FBI knew the dossier was false information and was likely part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Even with knowledge of the dossier's defects and political infection, the Justice Department sought FISA warrant renewals and took other actions.

After directing my oversight staff to investigate the Justice Department's mishandling of the matter, the Justice Department retaliated by issuing a subpoena for their phone records.

Then, a few of my Democratic colleagues pressured the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force to supposedly brief me and Senator Johnson relating to our Biden family investigation.

In August 2020, Senator Johnson and I had that infamous briefing from the FBI.

Later, its contents were leaked to the media even though the FBI had promised confidentiality.

That leak falsely labeled our oversight work as - you guessed it - Russian disinformation.

To this day - over four years later - the Intelligence Community and FBI refuse to provide us the intelligence basis for that briefing.

The title of this Wall Street Journal article sums it up, "The FBI's Dubious Briefing: Did the bureau set up two GOP Senators at the behest of Democrats?"

I know what government weaponization is.

And then we get to Special Counsel Jack Smith and his lawfare operation.

It involved an unprecedented FBI raid on Trump's house, including agents that even searched the former First Lady's clothing drawers.

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden certainly didn't receive the same treatment by the government regarding their records.

Indeed, as my oversight exposed, the FBI amazingly agreed to destroy laptops and records associated with Clinton's staff.

This Orwellian conduct should have no quarter.

On top of it all, FBI Special Agent Thibault, the anti-Trump agent that violated the Hatch Act for political activity on the job, started one of Jack Smith's cases.

But, Jack Smith wasn't the only Department official who tried to influence this past election.

The Washington Post reported last August about a previously undisclosed Mueller investigation into Trump that was closed for lack of evidence and it being a "fishing expedition."

That news reporting was based on sealed court records, government records, and potentially classified information roughly 90 days before the last presidential election.

The Justice Department leaked that information to the press to impact the election against President Trump. And they did it while stiff-arming congressional requests for information that would prove embarrassing to the Biden-Harris administration.

Let us not forget some of the other flagrant abuses of power that we've seen from the DOJ and the FBI over the last four years:

• The DOJ used the might of the Federal Government to prosecute individuals peacefully praying outside of abortion clinics.
• The FBI suggested that traditional Catholics could be domestic terrorism threats, claiming that these individuals adhere to "anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT and white supremacy ideology."
• The FBI opened dozens of investigations into parents who voiced their concerns at school board meetings regarding curriculum choices and COVID-19 mandates.
• The FBI applied undue pressure to social media platforms to censor so-called "misinformation," downgrading or removing flagged social media posts and removing users.

These are only a few particularly egregious examples of the rot infesting the DOJ. The impact of this political infection in our once-storied law enforcement institutions is catastrophic.

By every metric, the Biden-Harris Justice Department's conduct has failed to live up to our Country's ideals.

Ms. Bondi, 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.

The only way to accomplish that is through transparency for Congress and the American People.

With that, I'll turn to Ranking Member Durbin for his opening remarks.

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