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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, for the first time since her confirmation earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer for her tenure in the Office of the Attorney General for this calendar year.

From the outset, the Attorney General was not, apparently, happy to be there. She ducked many questions, and I think she believed we wouldn't notice. We did.

In her opening statement, the Attorney General said that ``playing politics with law enforcement powers,'' as she claims previous administrations have, ``will go down as a historic betrayal of public trust'' and that ``this is the kind of conduct that shatters the American people's faith in our law enforcement system.''

That is interesting coming from an Attorney General who, over the course of 8 very long months, has presided over exactly such a betrayal of public trust. The Attorney General has systematically weaponized the Department of Justice, turning it into a shield to protect President Trump and his allies and a sword to attack his opponents. She has made clear that her loyalties lie first and foremost with the President, not with the Constitution. In doing so, she effectively shut down justice at the Department of Justice, even before the party controlling the White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives shut down the government.

Last week, on the Senate floor and in the wake of the Federal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey that was ordered by President Trump expressly, I warned of the dangers posed by weaponizing the Justice Department in a political fashion.

A President, enabled by people like this Attorney General, who can warp the Department of Justice and FBI into a personal police force to target his enemies, can turn it against ordinary Americans too. Unfortunately, the city of Chicago, which I am proud to represent, is feeling that today.

In an especially egregious instance in the city's South Shore neighborhood last Tuesday night, hundreds of armed Federal agents rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters and swarmed an apartment building in the South Shore area. This made-for-movies entrance was into a building, which apparently the ICE agents knew little about the occupants.

ICE rampaged through the building, breaking down doors, rousting people out of bed, rounding up the residents without cause, detaining many with zip ties, including women and children. When one of the ICE agents was confronted with the children, he said, ``F---- them kids.''

Detaining not just immigrants but U.S. citizens for hours on end, with no justification, isn't fighting crime; it is cruel, and it is un- American.

Attorney General Bondi's Justice Department has defended this dubious legal basis for Federal deployments to Illinois and diverted Department of Justice personnel and their components to assist with these efforts. So, today, many of us pushed her for answers.

I asked her if anyone at the White House consulted her about the National Guard deployments to Chicago and other cities. She refused to answer that she even had a conversation with the White House about their justification for sending hundreds of National Guard troops into the city of Chicago.

I asked what secret the Attorney General was trying to hide from the American people who deserve to know the legitimate legal rationale for deploying American military to our cities. She responded by attempting to blame Democrats for the Republican shutdown and attacking me for not ``loving Chicago as much as [I] hate President Trump.'' That was a quote.

I have been a member of the Judiciary Committee for 20 years-plus. Never have I encountered a witness from any other administration of either political party responding to legitimate questions with personal attacks. She had a personal attack crafted for each one of the Senators and thought she was getting the best of us. But that kind of unserious response is what we have come to expect from Trump administration officials whose priority is loyalty, not the rule of law.

If DOJ is serious about reducing crimes, then they would work in conjunction with State and local leaders to implement evidence-based policies that do drive down violence. The fact is, this administration actually cares more about spreading fear into the hearts of our communities and catering to the vengeful whims of President Trump and Stephen Miller. It is political theater with an immense human pricetag.

I also asked the Attorney General about the Epstein client list. She wouldn't touch it. She said in February, publicly, that the client list was ``sitting on her desk.'' Well, it is October, and the American people are still waiting for answers on this. She refused today to provide any information about this list, and we know why.

A few months ago, a credible whistleblower told my office that FBI agents were instructed to flag any mention of President Trump from the files of Mr. Epstein. If true, that is not law enforcement; that is political protection. So I pressed her again today for more information to be made public. She refused.

Mr. President, what we saw in today's hearing was an Attorney General unwilling and maybe unable to defend what is happening in her Department. Whether it is the Epstein files, Chicago immigration raids, sweetheart deals for Trump allies, or the mass purging of career law enforcement, her silence tells a story.

Saying ``I'm not going to discuss this with you'' may have worked today, but one day, she will need to answer for her conduct in this role, and she will need to defend her record--one that saw the dismantling of the Department of Justice for political purposes on her watch.

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