The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday in favor of moving Pam Bondi forward in the nomination process, bringing President Donald Trump‘s choice to lead the Justice Department one step closer to confirmation.
The committee voted along party lines, 12–10, to advance Bondi’s nomination to the full Senate floor for a vote. The upper chamber is expected to bring her nomination up for a final vote sometime in the next week, but leadership has not yet set a date for it.
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) praised Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, ahead of the committee vote, highlighting her more than two decades’ worth of experience as a prosecutor.
“Her record shows that she’s willing to tackle and to solve some of the hardest problems facing our nation,” Grassley said, citing Bondi’s past work to eliminate oxycodone pill mills, stop human trafficking, and collaborate with both Republicans and Democrats.
Ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) signaled during Bondi’s confirmation hearing two weeks ago that he had reservations about her, saying he was uncertain if she could tell Trump “no” if pressured to use the DOJ in an unlawful or unethical manner.
Bondi, a fierce defender of Trump, vowed to senators that she would act independently of the White House and said “politics will not play a part” in her work.
Still, Durbin said he believed Trump would pressure Bondi to “weaponize” the DOJ against his political enemies. He cited Trump’s controversial moves during his first week in office to fire or reassign more than 20 senior career attorneys who worked on his criminal cases or in the National Security Division. Some legal experts raised alarm about Trump’s move, saying it was unlawful to terminate the employers without advance notice.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing these threats emerge in real time,” Durbin said, adding that “these moves, clearly made in the interest of installing his own loyalists, put our national security and public safety at risk.”
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Durbin said he was “unconvinced” by Bondi’s promises to remain a neutral enforcer of the law. He emphasized that she served as one of Trump’s lawyers during his first impeachment and that she “has echoed Trump’s calls for exacting revenge on political opponents.”
Despite the opposition from Democrats, Bondi has garnered enough support from Republicans at this stage to guarantee her confirmation.
