Feb. 4 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Pam Bondi on Tuesday night to become the next U.S. attorney general and lead the Justice Department during the Trump administration.
The vote in the Senate was 54 to 46, with Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joining Republicans to support the former Florida attorney general.
“I’m saying that she’s, she’s qualified, and it’s not my ideal pick, but it turns out that former Attorney General Merrick Garland wasn’t anyone’s ideal one either,” Fetterman told reporters after Tuesday’s vote.
President Donald Trump nominated Bondi to “refocus the DOJ” after his first pick, former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, withdrew from consideration in November over a House ethics probe into sex trafficking allegations.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans,” Trump claimed. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime and Making America Safe Again.”
During her confirmation hearing last month, Bondi blasted the “weaponization” of the Justice Department during the Biden administration and was highly critical of the criminal investigations that “targeted Donald Trump.”
“They went after him — actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him,” Bondi said. “If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”
“If confirmed, I will work to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice — and each of its components. Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end,” Bondi told lawmakers.
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Bondi’s nomination, voting 12 to 10 along party lines, to send it to the full Senate as Democrats accused the Trump administration of “repeatedly threatening to weaponize the justice system against those he feels have wronged him.”
Acting Attorney General James McHenry has fired more than a dozen Justice Department prosecutors for prosecuting Trump based on evidence collected by the Justice Department and FBI, because they “cannot be trusted to faithfully implement the president’s agenda.”
Bondi’s confirmation also comes after Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,600 defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
While Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., praised Bondi as “accomplished and competent” on the Senate floor Tuesday, he expressed concerns over her “loyalty oath” to the president who could ask for the “prosecution of a political adversary.”
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized Democrats who called Bondi qualified but refused to vote for her.
“If my colleagues will not cross the aisle to vote for this qualified nominee,” Grassley warned, “they’ll show that Senate Democrats are intent on opposing President Trump’s Cabinet picks for purely partisan reasons.”