President Donald Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi will face lawmakers at a congressional hearing Tuesday as the weaponization of former President Joe Biden's Justice Department remains breaking news.
The testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee comes just ahead of former FBI Director James Comey's first court appearance following an indictment amid revelations the Biden Justice Department spied on Republican senators.
It also comes as federal law enforcement officials surge into several cities across the U.S. to combat crime and enforce immigration laws.
The hearing is likely to split along deeply partisan lines, with Republicans expected to laud the Justice Department's efforts to confront violent crime and reverse Biden-era priorities. Democrats, by contrast, are poised to grill Bondi about a turbulent eight-month tenure that has been defined by mass firings and resignations of experienced prosecutors, including some who investigated Trump, resisted Trump administration pressure or simply served in senior roles in the prior administration.
Trump made it a campaign vow to root out political weaponization at the DOJ and to drain the swamp, and Bondi is making good on it, much to Democrats' dismay.
Bondi's appearance is her first before the panel since her confirmation hearing last January, when she pledged to not play politics with the Justice Department — a promise Democrats are likely to pounce on.
Bondi and other Republican allies have said the Biden administration, which brought two criminal cases against Trump, was the one that weaponized the department even though some of its most high-profile probes concerned the Democrat president and his son.
The Comey indictment is likely to take center stage at the hearing. The U.S. attorney's office in Virginia that brought the case had expressed reservations about the strength of evidence, and the Trump administration had to race to install a new prosecutor to secure the charges after the experienced leader of that office resigned days earlier under pressure.
Other inquiries are likely to come up as well.
The Justice Department under Bondi has opened criminal investigations into other vocal critics of the president, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. — who sits on the Judiciary Committee — as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James and Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor and current mayoral candidate. They have all denied wrongdoing, as has Comey, and have slammed the investigations as politically motivated.
Bondi is likely to tout the Justice Department's efforts to tackle violent crime by surging federal law enforcement in Washington, D.C., and now Memphis, Tennessee. Republican lawmakers who make up the majority of the committee will also likely highlight the department's focus on illegal immigration and dismantling Mexican cartels responsible for smuggling drugs into American communities.
The attorney general might also face questions about the Justice Department's handling of investigative files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The wealthy financier's case has dogged the department since its decision in July not to publicly release any more files in its possession after raising the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists.
But even in the face of intense conservative outrage, Bondi maintained the strong public support of the president.
Newsmax writer Eric Mack contributed to this report.