Trump’s attorney general chooses to face scrutiny on first day of Senate hearing | Donald Trump

Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, is expected to be questioned Wednesday during the first day of her confirmation hearing about her ability to resist the White House from exerting political pressure on the Justice Department.

The hearing, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, comes at a crunch time for the department, which has faced relentless criticism from Trump after its prosecutors indicted him in two federal criminal cases and is seeing Trump’s personal lawyers in those cases take over key leadership positions.

Bondi, the first female attorney general in Florida and a former lobbyist for Qatar, was not on the legal team defending Trump in those federal criminal cases. But she has been a longtime presence in his orbit, including when she worked to defend Trump at his first impeachment trial.

She also supported Trump’s fabricated claims of election fraud in 2020, helping her become Trump’s nominee for attorney general almost immediately after first choice Matt Gaetz withdrew when he found himself dogged by a series of sexual misconduct allegations .

That loyalty to Trump has raised hackles at the Justice Department, which prides itself on its independence from White House pressure and remembers with deep fear how in his first term Trump fired top officials when they stopped acquiescing to his demands .

Trump replaced his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, after he recused himself from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia and later fired his last attorney general, Bill Barr, after he refused to support Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims.

Bondi is also expected to be questioned about her prosecution as Florida attorney general and possible conflicts of interest stemming from her recent work for the major lobbying firm Ballard Partners.

During her tenure as Florida attorney general in 2013, Bondi’s office received nearly two dozen complaints about Trump University, and her aides have said she once considered joining a multistate lawsuit filed on behalf of students who claimed they had been defrauded.

While weighing the lawsuit, Bondi’s political action committee received a $25,000 contribution from a non-profit funded by Trump. While Trump and Bondi both deny a kickback, Bondi never joined the lawsuit, and Trump had to pay a $2,500 fine for violating tax laws to make the donation.

As chair of Ballard’s corporate compliance practice, Bondi has lobbied for major corporations that have battled the Justice Department she is tasked with leading, including in various antitrust and fraud cases.

Bondi was a county prosecutor in Florida before successfully running for Florida attorney general in 2010, due in part to regular appearances on Fox News.