U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 7, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi aimed heated rhetoric at Democratic senators on Capitol Hill Tuesday as she faced questions over the administration’s surge of federal agents to blue cities, as well as a litany of controversial issues surrounding the Department of Justice.
In one fervid exchange during the routine oversight hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Bondi lashed out at Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, “I wish you’d love Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.”
“And currently the National Guard are on the way to Chicago — if you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will,” Bondi continued, responding to a question from Durbin on whether she had any conversations with the administration ahead of a deployment of the National Guard to Chicago.
“And by the way so is (FBI) Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. You’re sitting here grilling me, and they’re on their way to Chicago to keep your state safe,” Bondi said.
“Madam Attorney General, it’s my job to grill you,” Durbin responded.
Battles with states
Bondi’s hearing occurred after a whirlwind weekend of back-and-forth between a federal judge and the Trump administration over whether National Guard troops could be sent to Portland, Oregon, and were necessary to protect federal law enforcement engaged with Immigration and Custom Enforcement protesters.
Illinois is now locked in a legal battle to block troops from coming to Chicago.
Chicago is a month into a federal crackdown. One of the most high-profile raids occurred in the city’s South Shore neighborhood on Sept. 30 when dozens of federal agents, including from the FBI, overran a five-story apartment building with helicopters and flashbangs, ziptying adults and children, and detaining some U.S. citizens, according to multiple media reports. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a highly produced video of the raid on social media.
Bondi’s voice grew hoarse during the hearing as she defended the administration’s campaign to arrest “countless” immigrants she described as “illegal aliens.”
The attorney general was combative with Democratic senators throughout nearly five hours of questioning — telling Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, “Don’t you ever challenge my integrity” when he asked about DOJ’s recently dismissed antitrust lawsuit against American Express.
Bondi later accused Sen. Mazie Hirono of supporting the loose political ideology antifa — which the White House is targeting as a cohesive body — when the Hawaii Democrat questioned a range of issues, including the department’s alleged consideration of a compensation fund for pardoned Jan. 6 rioters.
Tom Homan troubles aired
A laundry list of controversial incidents trailed Bondi into the committee room for the oversight hearing — including revelations of FBI agents handing $50,000 in a restaurant takeout bag to Tom Homan, Trump ally and now White House border czar, ahead of the November 2024 election in exchange for false government contracts.
Bondi declined to answer Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse when he asked, “What became of the $50,000 in cash that the FBI delivered evidently in a paper bag to Mr. Homan?”
Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, and other Democratic senators asked if Homan kept the money and if he claimed it on his income tax return.
“The investigation of Mr. Homan was subjected to a full review by the FBI and the DOJ. They found no credible evidence of wrongdoing,” Bondi said.
She then accused Whitehouse of corruption and accepting “dark money.”
“The questions here are actually pretty specific, so having you respond with completely irrelevant far-right internet talking points is really not very helpful,” Whitehouse said.
Comey indictment directed by Trump
Lawmakers from both parties volleyed accusations of the department’s “weaponization” against the previous and current administrations.
Bondi’s appearance came less than two weeks after a grand jury returned an indictment of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey. The indictment swiftly followed the administration’s ouster of interim U.S. Attorney Erik Seibert in Virginia after he resisted bringing charges against Comey and New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James. The administration replaced Seibert with President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Lindsey Halligan.
Days before the Comey indictment, Trump directly appealed to Bondi as “Pam” on his social media platform Truth Social: “What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.”
Schiff, a California Democrat, sits on the Judiciary Committee. Late in the hearing, Bondi suggested Schiff should “apologize” to Trump for his past efforts in impeachment proceedings during the president’s first term. Bondi also attacked Schiff as a “failed lawyer.”
Grassley Jan. 6 disclosure
Republicans seethed during the hearing at Monday’s disclosure by Committee Chair Chuck Grassley that FBI agents analyzed data on more than half a dozen Republican lawmakers’ phones during their 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The FBI allegedly sought data from the days surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack from the phones of Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania.
Hawley likened the investigation of his colleagues’ phones to a “witch hunt” and called for a special prosecutor to “get to the bottom of” alleged Department of Justice activities under former President Joe Biden.
“I find this breathtaking,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.
At Kennedy’s urging, Grassley of Iowa said his staff is conducting an investigation of the possible collection of phone data and that he may schedule a separate hearing on the matter.
Trump responded to the disclosure Tuesday morning on Truth Social: “Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A real sleazebag!!!”
Bondi also faced scrutiny from Democratic senators who rehashed her promises to release information on the federal probe of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, only to be followed by an FBI memo denying the release of any further case files.
A bipartisan effort is underway in the U.S. House to compel the release of the government’s investigative materials.
