Watch Live: Pam Bondi confirmation hearing for attorney general underway | Global News Avenue

Washington — Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who represented President-elect Donald Trump during his first impeachment, will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to seek confirmation as the nation’s top law enforcement officer officials.

“America must provide a layer of justice for all,” Bundy will say in her speech opening remarksobtained by CBS News. Bondi plans to tell the committee that under her leadership, “the partisan weaponization of the Justice Department will end.”

trump card Select Bondi He will be the nominee for U.S. attorney general after his first choice was former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. withdrew his name from consideration. In 2010, Bondi made history as the first woman to serve as Florida’s attorney general, serving a second term.

A close ally of the president-elect, Bondi quickly endorsed Trump when he first ran for the White House in 2016 and was one of the first elected officials in Florida to do so.

Bondi will hold confirmation hearing before Senate Judiciary Committee one of several events that occurred Trump is set to appear before a Republican-led panel this week as he prepares to begin his second term. Among those choices, in response to questions from senators ahead of Monday’s inauguration: Peter HeggsTrump’s presumptive nominee for defense secretary; Florida Senator Marco Rubiowho is being considered for Secretary of State; and South Dakota Governor Kristi NoemTrump selected him to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans say they plan to treat Trump with great deference as he fills top government positions and plan to appoint key Cabinet officials to their posts as soon as the president-elect takes office on Monday.

Bundy’s nomination

In the weeks leading up to her confirmation hearing with senators on Capitol Hill, Bondi is not expected to face major obstacles in her confirmation process in the Republican-led Senate. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley spoke with Bundy in early December and called her “a qualified nominee with an impressive legal career.”

Still, Democrats are likely to investigate Bondi, fearing Trump will use the Justice Department’s weapons to target his political opponents, including President Joe Biden, former special counsel Jack Smith and those investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Member, House Select Committee. United States Capitol Building.

She is also expected to be asked about her views on the role of the attorney general and the independence of the Justice Department.

Before the hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, accused Trump of using the Justice Department as his personal law firm and said he feared Bondi would prioritize loyalty to Trump over his Constitutional loyalty. He met with Bundy last week.

“The clear concern about Ms. Bundy is whether she will follow the bipartisan tradition of the post-Watergate era and oversee an independent Justice Department that upholds the rule of law,” Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in a Senate speech on Monday.

She also could face scrutiny from Democrats because of her lack of federal experience and her lobbying work for foreign countries since leaving state government. The attorney general nominee is a partner at Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm that also hired Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Susie Wiles).

Bondi served a term-limited term as Florida’s attorney general and stepped down in 2019. While in office, she spearheaded lawsuits against the Obama administration challenging the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and then-President Barack Obama’s immigration policies.

She continues to work as an attorney and lobbyist at Ballard Partners. There, she represented major companies including General Motors, Amazon, Uber and the National Institute to Combat Human Trafficking, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks lobbying activities. She also filed a registration form with the federal government to lobby on Qatar’s behalf “regarding Qatar’s relationships with U.S. government officials, U.S. commercial entities and non-governmental audiences, and on issues related to combating human trafficking.”

Bondi briefly left her lobbying position during Trump’s first term Become a member A member of his defense team during the first round of impeachment proceedings initiated by congressional Democrats. She defended Trump’s July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said the then-president had legitimate concerns about the Biden family, Ukraine and Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, served on Burisma’s board.

During the 2019 call, Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Biden, then his chief rival for the presidency, and his son. Democratic lawmakers launch investigative process to determine whether Trump conditional security assistance Ukraine publicly announced an investigation.

Democratic-led House of Representatives vote to impeach Trump abused his power and obstructed congressional investigations, making him the third U.S. president to be impeached. The then-Republican-led Senate acquit him After the trial, Bundy was part of the team representing Trump.

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, she spearheaded legal action challenging Pennsylvania’s election results and promoting false claims that Trump won the state.

Bondi was also among a group of Trump allies who went to New York to defend the president-elect in his “hush money” criminal trial early last year. jury Trump was convicted In May, he was charged with 34 state felonies of falsifying business records and was Sentenced last week.

After the Justice Department filed criminal charges against Trump in 2023, Bondi told Fox News, “The Department of Justice, the prosecutors, the bad guys are going to be prosecuted. The investigators are going to be investigated because of the deep state under President Trump, They were but now they are hiding in the shadows.”

If confirmed, she would now lead the department and would have authority to investigate all aspects of the investigation into Trump led by Smith. She will also oversee numerous law enforcement agencies within the Justice Department, including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, two organizations that have been targeted by the president-elect and his allies.

Bondi will also oversee the implementation of all aspects of the Trump agency and lead the division that defends the president-elect’s actions in federal court.

contributed to this report.