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’s top law enforcement officer is being scrutinized for the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with files being released well past the statutory deadline and redactions appearing to defy the law’s requirements.
Bondi’s department is overseeing the prosecution of former Venezuela President Nicolás 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.
“It’s 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,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a member of the committee, in an interview. “She’s been trying to avoid us, but she can’t avoid us any longer.”
But other than Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who said he plans to pepper Bondi over the Epstein saga, Republicans on the panel don’t appear to be clamoring to challenge Bondi on any of it.
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 “the good work they’ve done on just regularly prosecuting bad guys.”
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’s work to protect what he called “the rights of parents.”
“It’ll be fun,” Kiley added.
It’s 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 — namely by drawing out the GOP’s anticipated silence on the hot-button issues and the attorney general’s expected refusal to engage in Democratic questioning.
“The Department of Justice has been found to be lying by federal courts across the land — 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,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in an interview. “So, I think as little respect as they have for the courts, they probably have less for Congress.”
But, Raskin said, Democrats plan “to 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.”
He told reporters that Democrats will ask about the DOJ’s process for releasing the Epstein files that “produced such flawed results” in its production of the materials.
Democrats also say they’re ready for Bondi to deflect member questions by personally attacking lawmakers.
When she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October, she told Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to “apologize” for trying to impeach Trump and accused Sen. Dick Durbin of being unwilling “to protect your citizens” when the Illinois Democrat asked about National Guard deployment to his state.
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’s company.
“We’ve all noticed that at prior hearings, when she’s afraid to answer a question, she attacks the members of Congress,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California, a member of House Democratic leadership who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview. “So 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.”
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 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.
It’s possible Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee offer veiled criticism of the Justice Department’s immigration policies following the violent confrontations in Minnesota. House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said at a hearing with some of the Trump administration’s top immigration officials Tuesday that “when officials or elected leaders rush to conclusions about law enforcement or their fellow Americans, public trust suffers.”
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.
“It probably wouldn’t surprise you or her that it’s probably going to be Epstein-focused,” Massie said of his plans for questioning Bondi. But he wouldn’t offer any previews: “I don’t want her to know.”
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