Bondi spars with Democratic senator over Epstein ‘client list’
Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois grilled Pam Bondi as to why she made a public claim that the Epstein “client list” was “sitting” on her desk for review earlier this year, only to “produce already public information and no client list”.
Bondi pushed back, saying that she actually said she had “yet to review” the documents, and reaffirmed that there was no Epstein client list.
The attorney general went on to spar with Durbin, questioning why he “refused repeated Republican requests to release the Epstein flight logs in 2023 and 2024”. Durbin said Bondi’s claims were not accurate.
“I did not refuse. One of the senators here wished to produce those logs, and I asked her to put it in writing, and she never did,” Durbin pushed back, apparently referring to his Republican colleague, senator Marsha Blackburn.
“I would really appreciate the opportunity to correct the record, because senator Durbin knows I repeatedly asked for those flight logs, I brought up the subpoena. You even shut down the committee because you didn’t want that, I submitted that in writing, and you continue to misrepresent that,” Blackburn later chimed in.
Durbin, for his part, maintained that Blackburn failed to commit this to writing.
Key events
Sam Levine
In a lengthy statement, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, sought to justify the Justice Department’s investigation into former FBI director James Comey.
As attorney general Pam Bondi reportedly said she could not comment, Graham zeroed in on errors the FBI made in its application to the Foreign intelligence surveillance court to spy on Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide, early into its investigation into Russia.
“You wonder why we’re looking at Comey? Give me a break,” Graham said. “We’re looking at Comey because he ran an FBI and personally knew about exculpatory information and let it slide. How in the hell can the document you’re using against a sitting president to suggest he may be a Russian agent, or Carter Page, how does that not get to the court?”
But Comey’s indictment has nothing to do with Page or the FISA court. Comey’s charges are instead related to September 2020 testimony he gave to Congress and allegations he lied about ever authorizing someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news stories. The government has not presented the details or evidence in its case and Comey has said he is innocent.
Democratic senator pushes Bondi on Homan bribery allegations
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse probed the attorney general on what happened to the $50,000 in cash, that border tsar Tom Homan allegedly received.
“Mr. Holman was subjected to a full review by the FBI agent and DOJ prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any wrongdoing,” Bondi replied, before chiding the Democratic senator from Rhode Island. “You know, you’re very concerned about money and people taking money, and you work with money groups all the time.”
Supreme court arguments begin in case over ‘conversion therapy’ ban’s impact on free speech protections
Rachel Leingang
A reminder that Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal group, is representing a counselor who says a Colorado “conversion therapy” ban for people under age 18 ban violates her first amendment rights.
The justices are first questioning the ADF attorney, probing into how the Colorado law affects Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist. The state has argued Chiles’ arguments are hypothetical – she has not been disciplined under the law.
The alliance has argued Chiles is “censoring herself” in her treatment of patients. Jim Campbell, the alliance’s chief legal counsel, told the justices Chiles has been the subject of complaints to the state against her in recent weeks, which are now being investigated by the state.
He described the therapy she provides as helping clients “when their goals are to resolve gender dysphoria by getting comfortable with their body and realigning their identity with their sex” and that she “helps them if they’re experiencing unwanted same sex attraction, if their goal is to reduce it”.
Bondi spars with Democratic senator over Epstein ‘client list’
Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois grilled Pam Bondi as to why she made a public claim that the Epstein “client list” was “sitting” on her desk for review earlier this year, only to “produce already public information and no client list”.
Bondi pushed back, saying that she actually said she had “yet to review” the documents, and reaffirmed that there was no Epstein client list.
The attorney general went on to spar with Durbin, questioning why he “refused repeated Republican requests to release the Epstein flight logs in 2023 and 2024”. Durbin said Bondi’s claims were not accurate.
“I did not refuse. One of the senators here wished to produce those logs, and I asked her to put it in writing, and she never did,” Durbin pushed back, apparently referring to his Republican colleague, senator Marsha Blackburn.
“I would really appreciate the opportunity to correct the record, because senator Durbin knows I repeatedly asked for those flight logs, I brought up the subpoena. You even shut down the committee because you didn’t want that, I submitted that in writing, and you continue to misrepresent that,” Blackburn later chimed in.
Durbin, for his part, maintained that Blackburn failed to commit this to writing.
Bondi says ‘national guard are on the way to Chicago’, as she blames ranking member for government shutdown
In a heated exchange with ranking member Dick Durbin, Bondi refused to answer the senator’s question about whether she was consulted about the president’s decision to send national guard troops to Illinois – the state which Durbin represents.
“You voted to shut down the government, and you’re sitting here. Our law enforcement officers aren’t being paid. They’re out there working to protect you,” Bondi said, after declining to discuss internal conversations with the White House. “I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate president Trump. Currently the national guard are on the way to Chicago. If you’re not going to protect your citizens, president Trump will.”
Bondi says operation Arctic Frost was an ‘undemocratic abuse of power’
Pam Bondi said that operation Arctic Frost – which was an intelligence gathering effort that led to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election by president Trump and his allies – was “an unconstitutional, undemocratic abuse of power”.
On Monday, several Republican lawmakers said that the FBI gathered phone records from GOP senators. These records were obtained through a grand jury. Republicans have called this move part of the wider pattern of political weaponization of the previous administration.
“This is the kind of conduct that shattered the American people’s faith in our government,” Bondi said today. “Our FBI is targeting violent criminals, child predators and other law breakers, not sitting senators who happen to be from the wrong political party.”
In her opening statement, Pam Bondi said that her work at the justice department was to remedy the “historic betrayal of public trust” of the previous administration.
“We will work to earn that back every single day, we are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime while there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months, we have made tremendous progress towards those ends,” Bondi said.
She also cited the federal law enforcement surges in Washington DC and Memphis, Tennessee, as examples of how the justice department has worked with local leadership. “We are replicating that tough on crime approach throughout this country,” she added.
Durbin says attorney general Bondi has ‘left an enormous stain on American history’
The committee’s ranking member, Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, is summing up several of the criticisms that lawmakers have made of the Trump justice department in recent months.
“Our nation’s top law enforcement agency has become a shield for the president and his political allies when they engage in misconduct,” Durbin said, before repeating the allegations of border czar Tom Homan, accepting a $50,000 in exchange for promising immigration enforcement prior to the president returning to office.
Durbin went on to call Lindsey Halligan, the new US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, part of a “network of unqualified mega loyalists masquerading as federal prosecutors”.
Halligan was installed after Trump pressured her predecessor, Erik Siebert, to resign, after Siebert said there was insufficient evidence to indict the president’s political adversaries, like former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James.
“Attorney general Bondi in eight short months, you have fundamentally transformed the Justice Department and left an enormous stain on American history. It will take decades to recover,” Durbin said.
Senate judiciary chair begins Bondi hearing by calling out ‘weaponization’ of Biden DoJ
Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator who chairs the judiciary committee, has kicked of Pam Bondi’s hearing by criticizing the “political weaponization” of the Biden administration.
“We’re pointing this all out because we can’t have this repeated in the United States,” Grassley said, addressing Bondi. “It’s time for accountability, and I look forward to hearing about your success in that regard.”
Bondi appears before Senate judiciary committee
Attorney general Pam Bondi is facing senators on the judiciary committee now. She’ll face questions lawmakers about her tenure at the justice department (DoJ) so far, particularly as Democratic senators have called out the Trump administration for weaponizing the DoJ to investigate and prosecute political enemies.
Democratic senator Adam Schiff, of California, sits on the judiciary committee, but has also been the target of Donald Trump’s ire, as he’s sought to target his political adversaries. A reminder, Schiff was part of the House committee which investigated the 6 January insurrection at the US capitol.
