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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, last week, Pam Bondi was sworn in as the highest law enforcement officer in the United States of America. She is now the U.S. Attorney General. Unfortunately, as many of us feared, Attorney General Bondi took immediate steps to undermine the integrity of the Department of Justice.

President Trump, after Bondi was confirmed, even said:

I know I'm supposed to say she's going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats. . . . I'm not sure if there's a possibility of totally.

On day one in office, Attorney General Bondi created a so-called Weaponization Working Group--a task force to investigate ``the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority over the last four years.'' Bondi said that she would ``investigate the investigators'' and ``prosecute the prosecutors,'' and now she is doing exactly that to seek ``retribution'' against political enemies, real and perceived, that President Trump has repeatedly threatened.

I wish I could say I am surprised by Attorney General Bondi's actions, but last week, I stood at this very spot sounding the alarm just before her confirmation vote. The writing was on the wall. Attorney General Bondi has made it clear that her foremost loyalty is to one person--President Trump--and she kept her promise on day one after being sworn into office by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court.

Bondi's directive is only one step in misusing the powers of government to carry out President Trump's retribution against those he perceives to be his enemies, and the list is long. Even before Attorney General Bondi was confirmed, the Trump administration purged dozens of senior career law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI. Many of these senior officials are reportedly being reassigned to immigration cases for which they have little or no expertise.

Last week, FBI law enforcement personnel across the country had little over 48 hours to answer a survey about their work on any case related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, including whether they handled arrests, led operations, testified in trials, and more.

Consider this for a moment. I don't know if you were here, Madam President, on that day, but those of us who were will never forget it. An insurrectionist mob left a rally for President Trump and came to Capitol Hill, crashed down the doors and windows, invaded the Capitol, and started beating up on the Capitol Hill Police. The net result: Four policemen died and 140 were seriously injured.

They took control of the U.S. Senate Chamber and the House Chamber and went through their antics, posing for pictures sitting in the chair you are sitting in. They went through my desk and other desks too. It was their day, these so-called tourists, so-called political prisoners.

I have said on the floor before and I have thought about this many times. If we were told that in the House of Parliament in London, a mob had a beaten down the wooden door and taken control of the House of Commons, what would have been the reaction in the United States? First, incredulous: That can't happen. England is a powerful nation. It has a rich history. A mob took over Parliament?

That is exactly what happened on January 6. A mob took over the Congress of the United States, invaded the Capitol Building like the British in the War of 1812, and forced control at the expense of a lot of people who were prepared to die to defend us that day.

That was a horrible incident. It is a horrible chapter in American history. Now the Trump administration is setting out to erase that history.

The Soviet revisionists would look at this with some pride, to think that politicians in America are engaging in the same historical rewrite that they did for so many decades. This rewrite is to erase January 6 as a reality, to whitewash it, to describe it as something that isn't. How they will ever overcome the hours and hours of videotapes which verify exactly what happened that day, I don't know, but they are going to start by cleansing the ranks of those in law enforcement who had anything to do with the 1,600 criminal defendants who were charged because of that day. Apparently, they wanted disclosure of the names of all those who took the assignment given to them at the Department of Justice or the FBI to investigate that crime of January 6. At the FBI, at least six FBI Executive Assistant Directors have been removed, including those who oversaw the National Security Branch, the Intelligence Branch, and the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. The Trump administration has also removed the Special Agents in Charge of at least four major field offices and the Assistant Director of the Washington Field Office.

The Acting Attorney General has also issued a memo firing a dozen career Department of Justice prosecutors.

She is quoted as saying:

Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you in implementing the President's agenda faithfully.

The Bureau's acting leaders are career FBI public servants who have reportedly resisted the push from Trump administration officials to punish FBI agents who were simply doing the work that was assigned to them to investigate the January 6 attack. If I am not mistaken, it was the largest criminal prosecution in history, and to think that many of the Assistant Attorneys General and members of the FBI had some role in its pursuit is no surprise whatsoever.

So now the Trump administration wants these people to be outed-- publicly disclosed--with names and addresses. This weekend, the Bureau turned over the personnel details of thousands of FBI personnel. Thankfully, a temporary court order was issued on Friday that is keeping the Department of Justice from revealing those names.

Is there any danger to these women and men who swore allegiance to the United States and its Constitution and pursued the official duties of the Department of Justice? Why, of course, there is. The previous head of the FBI told us that the situation is grim when it comes to domestic terrorism in the United States. So is he suggesting that, perhaps, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers can't wait to get this list the Trump administration has produced--a list of those who did their duty under the Constitution and pursued these cases on the January 6 outrage? I am afraid that is a fact.

That temporary court order is the only thing between these White nationalist-extremist groups and the men and women who dedicated their lives to law enforcement in this country. That is where we have come to in just a few short days of the new Trump administration.

Tomorrow, FBI probationary agents and personnel stationed around the world are required to submit justifications for their continued employment. This could lead to the firing of up to 3,000 law enforcement officials. Don't tell me you want to fight crime. Don't tell me you want to stop narcotics and then dismiss 3,000 FBI and Department of Justice officials. These mass layoffs, forced retirements, and involuntary reassignments of experienced Department of Justice and FBI officials represent an outright attack on public safety by President Trump.

America will be less safe because of this political charade that is going on in the Department of Justice. These mass layoffs of these experienced people mean that your family, your town, your neighborhood will be less safe. The purge is already leading to widespread disruption and delay in prosecutions, investigations, and sensitive operations. The Joint Terrorism Task Forces have been asked to focus on President Trump's immigration-related initiatives, which means valuable resources and personnel will be shifted away from State and local and Federal partners fighting foreign and domestic terrorism.

As America faces a heightened threat landscape, these removals and reassignments are crippling not only to the Justice Department and the FBI but to the 93 U.S. Attorney's Offices and the 55 FBI field offices across the country. The loss of potentially thousands of Federal law enforcement jobs will put a burden on local field offices; slow ongoing casework; increase the unemployment rates nationwide in law enforcement; and harm local economies.

President Trump may claim to back the blue--he may pose with men and women of law enforcement--but, apparently, he is only interested in doing so when it is politically convenient and consistent with his political agenda.

Before Ms. Bondi's confirmation, my concerns about how she would lead the Department were based on her history as President Trump's personal lawyer, but the leadership of Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, is no longer hypothetical. Her directives and actions are now impacting a lot of innocent people and a lot of good Americans who have dedicated their lives to public service and law enforcement. We need to work together on a bipartisan basis to push back against these attacks on the Department of Justice and the FBI to protect the national security of the United States.

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