Congress
Peter Navarro, Trump’s embattled trade adviser, on hand for Bondi’s Hill hearing
Poised to face tough questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats about President Donald Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department against perceived enemies, Attorney General Pam Bondi has brought a retort: Trump’s economic advisor Peter Navarro.
Bondi is testifying Tuesday at the panel’s annual oversight hearing of the DOJ, with Navarro in attendance in the Capitol Hill meeting room. A former aide in Trump’s first administration and now the president’s current trade advisor, Navarro has continued on a crusade against the Justice Department for his four-month prison sentence during the Biden administration, when he failed to comply with a subpoena from the Democratic-led committee investigating the Capitol attacks on Jan. 6, 2021.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced he had obtained documents around the FBI’s handling of the Navarro case, including a request for physical surveillance of Navarro on the day the FBI arrested him and a timeline of that surveillance. Navarro was ultimately arrested publicly in 2022 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Grassley called the treatment “unnecessary.”
“They were playing politics with law enforcement powers, and will go down as a historic betrayal of public trust,” Bondi said of the former Biden administration. “This is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people’s faith in our law enforcement system.”
The revelations appeared designed to preempt Democratic criticism of Trump’s broad campaign to leverage the DOJ against the president’s political adversaries. The Justice Department in the Trump administration has opened investigations into Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — who, as a member of the House, managed Trump’s first impeachment trial — and New York Attorney General Letitiah James — who had pursued a civil lawsuit against the Trump organization.
Last month, former FBI Director James Comey was charged with obstruction and lying to Congress.
Schiff, a now member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will question Bondi later Tueday.
Grassley also continued to decry what he believed was an “unconstitutional breach:” the FBI’s decision under former President Joe Biden to request telephone records for Republican members of Congress as part of the investigation into Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Republican Senators announced this new information Monday, arguing it constituted an unjustified weaponization of law enforcement against the GOP.
The judiciary panel includes several lawmakers who were targets of that FBI probe, which was narrowly tailored around the date of the certification of the 2020 election results and the subsequent attack on the U.S. Capitol. The FBI did not obtain the content of their calls.
A large contingent of House Republicans — encompassing hard-liners, Budget Committee members, panel chairs and party leaders — piled into Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday afternoon to discuss a second party-line package, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of the private meeting.
Among the lawmakers attending were Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger, also of Texas.
Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Byron Donalds of Florida, Tom McClintock of California and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma were also on hand, alongside Pennsylvania Reps. Lloyd Smucker and Scott Perry.
“We’re definitely preparing to move forward,” Johnson said in an interview as he left the meeting, regarding the House GOP Conference’s plans to pursue another bill through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process. “We’re talking about more details. Lots of work going on.”
One of the biggest issues members are trying to work through at the moment is how to close the wide gap between Republicans in the House and Senate. Most House Republicans want a more expansive bill with myriad conservative policy priorities to ride alongside war and defense funding, while the Senate GOP is largely pushing for a more narrowly-focused measure, according to the four people.
Senate Democrats rejected a GOP photo ID amendment Thursday, an issue that Republicans are eager to use as a cudgel in the midterms.
Senators voted 53-47 on the amendment from Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, which needed 60 votes to advance. Republicans wanted to add the language to their election bill, known as the SAVE America Act.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the amendment “would impose the single strictest voter ID law in America.”
“Stricter than Texas. Stricter than Florida. Stricter than any state in the country,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wants to clinch a bipartisan Department of Homeland Security funding agreement Thursday.
“I think the Dems are now in possession of what I think is our last and final” offer, Thune told reporters. “So let’s hope this gets it done.”
“We’re going to know soon,” he added.
The South Dakota Republican declined to discuss details of the offer but suggested it was similar to where the discussions were headed over the weekend. GOP senators then were looking at a bipartisan deal that would fund most of DHS but leave out funding for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
That offer was rejected by Democrats. But two people granted anonymity to discuss the revised proposal said it, too, omitted only ERO money but included additional language to try to address some of Democrats’ concerns.
Spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Senate is expected to vote again on the House-passed DHS bill Thursday afternoon. The House is also voting again on DHS funding Thursday and is planning to leave town Friday morning for a two-week holiday recess. Progress in the Senate could prompt House GOP leaders to stay in session in hopes of sending a bill to President Donald Trump.
Asked about the Senate vote, Thune said he hoped there would be “some finality in this real soon.”
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