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senate judiciary committee
Schiff Lists All the Questions Pam Bondi Refused to Answer During Contentious Senate Hearing
"This is supposed to be an oversight hearing!" Sen. Adam Schiff exclaimed after documenting Bondi's obstruction.
Oct 07, 2025
US Attorney General Pam Bondi received a grilling from Senate Democrats on Tuesday, although much of her testimony was notable for the numerous questions she refused to answer.
Near the conclusion of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that lasted nearly five hours, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) confronted Bondi by running down a list of questions asked his colleagues that she had either dodged or outright refused to answer.
Among other things, Schiff noted that Bondi refused to answer if she had consulted with professional ethics attorneys before she signed off on President Donald Trump receiving a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari government; if she had played any role in allegedly ordering federal agents to flag any mentions of Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein criminal case files; if Trump border czar Tom Homan had kept a $50,000 cash bribe he allegedly received from undercover FBI agents; or if the DOJ had provided any legal guidance or justification for bombing attacks ordered by Trump on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean.
Additionally, Schiff said that Bondi had refused to answer if she supported a "restoration fund" to pay money to Trump supporters who violently attacked the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021; if she had fired career Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors because of their work on January 6-related cases; and if she believed that government officials are obligated to abide by court rulings.
Schiff: I think it's valuable that the American people get a sense of what you have refused to answer today. So these are just some of the questions you refuse to answer, but or have answered with personal attacks on members of this committee. You were asked whether you consulted… pic.twitter.com/SP0l0PY082
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2025
After running down his list, Schiff exclaimed, "This is supposed to be an oversight hearing!"
This prompted Bondi to interject, to which Schiff replied, "You can attack me later, I know you have plenty of canned attacks, we've heard them all day."
Schiff then pivoted back to his original statement.
"This is supposed to be an oversight hearing of the Justice Department," he said. "And it comes in the wake of an indictment called for by the president of one of this enemies. This is supposed to be an oversight hearing, and it comes in the wake of revelations that a top administration official took $50,000 in a bag, and this department made that investigation go away. This is supposed to be an oversight hearing in which dozens of prosecutors have been fired simply because they worked on cases investigating the... president."
At this point, Bondi interjected with an apparent non-sequitur.
"What about the fires in California, do you care about that, Sen. Schiff?" she demanded to know.
Shortly after, she suggested that Schiff should "apologize to Donald Trump for slandering him."
Schiff: This is supposed to be an oversight hearing when dozens of prosecutors have been fired simply because they worked on cases investigating the former president.
Bondi: What about the fires in California? Are the riots in LA serious? pic.twitter.com/GUkOQvBDxM
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2025
The day before the hearing, nearly 300 former DOJ employees released a letter blasting Bondi's leadership of the department, while accusing her and other administration officials of "taking a sledgehammer to... long-standing work the department has done to protect communities and the rule of law."
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Democrats Launch Probes of Trump Border Czar After He Reportedly Took $50K Bribe
"Such allegations of high-level corruption and cover-up demand your close cooperation with congressional oversight," wrote Senate Democrats to the US Department of Justice.
Sep 23, 2025
Democrats in both the US Senate and House on Tuesday announced they were launching a probe into President Donald Trump's "border czar," Tom Homan, after MSNBC reported this past weekend that he was caught on camera accepting a $50,000 cash bribe by undercover FBI agents.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they had "grave concern" about the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reportedly shutting down the probe into Homan despite the FBI allegedly possessing video evidence of him accepting $50,000 in cash from agents who were posing as businessmen.
"These reports allege that Mr. Homan received a significant amount of money... in 'exchange for facilitating future contracts related to border enforcement,'" the Democrats wrote. "Such allegations of high-level corruption and cover-up demand your close cooperation with congressional oversight and transparency to restore public trust."
The Democrats then asked the DOJ to preserve "any and all records related to the investigation into Mr. Homan and the decision to close the investigation," and to hand over materials including the FBI's full investigative file and "any recordings of Mr. Homan receiving cash from undercover FBI agents."
MSNBC reporter Ken Dilanian noted in a post on X that Democrats lack subpoena power given that they are in the minority in the Senate, which means it's unlikely that the DOJ will hand over the materials requested.
However, he said that they had other options to gather information about Homan's alleged actions.
"They certainly could interview career officials involved in the investigation and senior FBI and DoJ officials in the last administration who were briefed on it," he said.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also sent a letter to Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday demanding that they turn over all audio and video recordings of the reported meeting, communications between the White House and the DOJ regarding the decision to close the investigation, and other materials related to the bribery allegations.
Ryan Nobles of NBC News noted that "should Democrats win back the majority in 2026... this request will quickly become a legal subpoena the DOJ and FBI cannot just ignore."
Trump and Homan have maintained that the border czar "did nothing criminal or illegal."
" House Democrats are keeping receipts, Tom," said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.). "And when law and order returns, we will let people of honor determine whether you did anything 'criminal or illegal.'"
The launch of an official investigation into the Homan allegations comes after Democrats over the weekend demanded answers from the Trump administration into why it shut down the DOJ's probe of the Trump official.
“Release the tapes—Americans deserve disclosure of evidence showing top DHS official Homan accepting a bag full of $50,000 in cash,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said on Sunday. “We need to know why the investigation was dropped—all the facts and evidence.”
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Third DOJ Whistleblower Unveils New Allegations That Bove Misled Senate About Adams Case
"What will come out next about Bove?" said one senator as a confirmation vote loomed. "That's precisely the problem with this disaster of a nominee. And why Senate Republicans are rushing through his nomination."
Jul 29, 2025
With the U.S. Senate poised to vote as early as Tuesday on Trump administration official Emil Bove's nomination for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge, a third whistleblower came forward with information about Bove's conduct at the Department of Justice and Democratic senators made their latest push to stop his confirmation.
As The Washington Post reported, a whistleblower shared evidence with lawmakers that Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general and a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, misled the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his role in the DOJ's dismissal of corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
During his confirmation hearing in June, Bove told senators that U.S. District Judge Dale Ho granted the DOJ's motion to dismiss the Adams case because it "reflected a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion."
He denied the existence of the DOJ deal with Adams to drop the charges in exchange for the mayor's cooperation with Trump's mass deportation agenda, saying that "the suggestion that there was some kind of quid pro quo was just plain false."
The decision to drop the charges led several prosecutors to resign from the DOJ in protest.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and condemned Republicans' decision to advance Bove's nomination earlier this month, first received evidence from the third whistleblower, according to the Post. Several other Democrats have also reviewed the evidence, which Booker told the outlet was "significant."
"We have substantial information relevant to the truthfulness of the nominee," Booker said on the Senate floor, calling on Republicans on the committee to review the new evidence.
"Another whistleblower has come forward with evidence that raises serious concerns with Emil Bove's misconduct. Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove's nomination."
Lawyers for the anonymous whistleblower told the Post on Tuesday that they had turned over the new information provided by the person to the DOJ inspector general.
Booker was joined by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday in calling on the DOJ's inspector general to promptly open an investigation into Bove in light of the latest whistleblower complaint.
"In the event these whistleblower complaints and other reports have not already prompted investigations by your office, we urge you to undertake a thorough review of these disclosures and allegations," said the lawmakers.
Two other whistleblowers have come forward in recent weeks, alleging Bove told DOJ lawyers to ignore court orders that would impede Trump's mass deportation agenda. Former DOJ attorneys and federal and state judges have urged the Senate to oppose his nomination.
Schiff condemned Republicans on the committee for attempting to dismiss the whistleblowers' complaints.
"What will come out next about Bove?" said Schiff. "That's precisely the problem with this disaster of a nominee. And why Senate Republicans are rushing through his nomination. Before more disqualifying information can come out."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) emphasized that the fight to stop Bove's confirmation "isn't over, even when subservient Senate Republicans ignore another whistleblower and shove this character through their new-low, hide-the-ball Senate confirmation process and onto the bench."
Republicans can afford to lose only three votes for Bove and still confirm him with a tie-breaker vote from Vice President JD Vance. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are expected to oppose him.
Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Judiciary Committee's ranking member, said the latest complaint is "another damning indictment of a man who should never be a federal judge."
"Another whistleblower has come forward with evidence that raises serious concerns with Emil Bove's misconduct," said Sorbe. "Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove's nomination."
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