United States Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to evade questions by lawmakers at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Monday on President Donald Trump’s budget request for the Department of Justice.
Bondi especially deflected when asked specifically about the Jan. 6 pardons.
New York Rep. Joe Morelle asked Bondi whether Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters would also cover crimes committed outside of the ones perpetrated by insurgents in the assault on the Capitol.
The former top lawyer in Florida refused to answer Morelle’s questions.
“Well, I don’t know if you’re referring to Joe Biden pardoning his son after he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden,” she started before Morelle interrupted her.
“No, I’m actually referring to Jan. 6,” he told her.
“All the sentences that the people that were on death row, I’ve met with those families, all of those sentences were commuted. I’m not going to comment on pardons on either side of the aisle,” even though she just did, blaming former Biden for commuting the sentences of death row inmates before he left office and somehow finding a parallel between those commutations and the violent attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021 after Trump lost the election to Biden.
Morelle responded that he wasn’t asking about pardons on either side of the aisle.
“You’re the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. You have a responsibility directly. You swore an oath to the Constitution, not the president. I want to know what your views are on the extent to which pardons cover potential crimes committed by individuals who have been pardoned but unrelated to Jan. 6,” he asked again.
But Bondi deflected again, making a reference to Trump’s call for an investigation into Biden’s alleged use of the autopen.
“Do you mean the ones that were done by the autopen? I’m not going to discuss anything that could be or not be pending litigation.”
A frustrated Morelle then agreed with a comment by a colleague during earlier questioning that Bondi was filibustering, essentially blocking attempts to answer any questions she didn’t agree with by committee members.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro had asked about a provision in Trump’s DOJ budget that drastically reduces staff and funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, by 40 percent.
DeLauro expressed concerns that it would create a more dangerous environment because the ATF is tasked with, among other responsibilities, investigating and preventing federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture and possession of firearms and explosives.
Bondi again refused to answer questions about how many agents the ATF would lose under Trump’s budget proposal, prompting DeLauro to accuse her of filibustering the committee.
Bondi might have been tight-lipped, but social media users had a lot to say about the DOJ chief’s refusal to answer basic questions.
“Her actions are a betrayal of the rule of law and a direct threat to national security,” a user posted on X.
Another had this to say: “Bondi looks like an absolute fool. Really. Just a fool. She asked for numbers – you give numbers. It isn’t rocket science, it’s basic math.”
Kristen Gough posted, “So again – the goal was NEVER cutting down the amount of Fentanyl coming into the country. Corrupt to the core.”
And still another thinks the proposed reduction in the ATF budget is extremely nefarious.
“They don’t want guns regulated that way their Terrorist Right Wing Sleeper cells are able to arm themselves and create militias more easily.”