{"id":18858,"date":"2026-02-11T09:47:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/why-dems-think-they-have-the-upper-hand-at-pam-bondis-big-hill-hearing\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:47:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:47:58","slug":"why-dems-think-they-have-the-upper-hand-at-pam-bondis-big-hill-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/why-dems-think-they-have-the-upper-hand-at-pam-bondis-big-hill-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Dems think they have the upper hand at Pam Bondi\u2019s big Hill hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee amid a barrage of controversies that would ordinarily portend a dicey bipartisan grilling.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s top law enforcement officer is being scrutinized for the Justice Department\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with files being released well past the statutory deadline and redactions appearing to defy the law\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n

Bondi\u2019s department is overseeing the prosecution of former Venezuela President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who was forcibly removed from his country by U.S. troops in an operation that has prompted a flurry of legal questions. Her agency is also being pressured to investigate and bring charges against the federal agents who fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to narrow down all of the lawlessness and gross abuse of power that this Department of Justice has engaged in in just one year,\u201d said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a member of the committee, in an interview. \u201cShe\u2019s been trying to avoid us, but she can’t avoid us any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But other than Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who said he plans to pepper Bondi over the Epstein saga, Republicans on the panel don\u2019t appear to be clamoring to challenge Bondi on any of it.<\/p>\n

Asked his priorities for the hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan in an interview said he wanted to hear about the newly appointed senior DOJ official focused on fraud, the now-defunct investigation into President Donald Trump and \u201cthe good work they’ve done on just regularly prosecuting bad guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said he intends to ask Bondi about efforts to overhaul election law, while Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) suggested he would question her about the department\u2019s work to protect what he called \u201cthe rights of parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be fun,\u201d Kiley added.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for Cabinet officials to confront a hospitable audience when the majority shares the party affiliation of the administration in power, but Democrats think the stack of high-profile dramas encircling Bondi could give them a unique opportunity \u2014 namely by drawing out the GOP\u2019s anticipated silence on the hot-button issues and the attorney general\u2019s expected refusal to engage in Democratic questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department of Justice has been found to be lying by federal courts across the land \u2014 they have withheld evidence, they have misled the court, they’ve shown spectacular disrespect for the rule of law and the integrity of the courts,\u201d said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in an interview. \u201cSo, I think as little respect as they have for the courts, they probably have less for Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Raskin said, Democrats plan \u201cto engage in some exchanges that will spotlight some of the worst depredations of the Trump Justice Department, and we hope the mobilization of public opinion will allow us to make some progress in some areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told reporters that Democrats will ask about the DOJ\u2019s process for releasing the Epstein files that \u201cproduced such flawed results\u201d in its production of the materials.<\/p>\n

Democrats also say they\u2019re ready for Bondi to deflect member questions by personally attacking lawmakers.<\/p>\n

When she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October, she told Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)<\/u><\/a> to \u201capologize\u201d for trying to impeach Trump and accused Sen. Dick Durbin of being unwilling \u201cto protect your citizens<\/u><\/a>\u201d when the Illinois Democrat asked about National Guard deployment to his state.<\/p>\n

She also punted a question on Epstein back to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) over campaign donations of which there is no record with the Federal Election Commission, then levied a bizarre charge that he had pushed legislation that would subsidize his wife\u2019s company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve all noticed that at prior hearings, when she’s afraid to answer a question, she attacks the members of Congress,\u201d Rep. Ted Lieu of California, a member of House Democratic leadership who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. \u201cSo if she starts doing that, you know she’s afraid to answer a question, and she’s engaged in a cover-up, so the American people will be able to see what she does on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bondi could go after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a longtime vocal foe of the Trump administration who is now running for governor and has drawn past scrutiny for an alleged connection<\/u><\/a> to a suspected Chinese spy. House Republicans removed him from the Intelligence Committee, but the Ethics Committee abandoned its investigation into the matter in 2023.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee offer veiled criticism of the Justice Department\u2019s immigration policies following the violent confrontations in Minnesota. House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said at a hearing<\/u><\/a> with some of the Trump administration\u2019s top immigration officials Tuesday that \u201cwhen officials or elected leaders rush to conclusions about law enforcement or their fellow Americans, public trust suffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

But most of the Republicans who sit on the House Judiciary dais are staunch Trump loyalists unlikely to be out of lockstep with Bondi. Massie, who Trump is now trying to primary out of office after multiple defections, could be the sole exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably wouldn\u2019t surprise you or her that it\u2019s probably going to be Epstein-focused,\u201d Massie said of his plans for questioning Bondi. But he wouldn\u2019t offer any previews: \u201cI don\u2019t want her to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee amid a barrage of controversies that would ordinarily portend a dicey bipartisan grilling. The nation\u2019s top law enforcement officer is being scrutinized for the Justice Department\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with files being released well past the statutory deadline and redactions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}