Bondi Fires Back at Blumenthal: 'I Sit Up Here and Speak the Truth' (January 15, 2025)

Pam Bondi wasn’t going to let a Democrat tell her what she had to say. When Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suggested at her confirmation hearing that she was only saying what nominees “have to say to be here,” President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general shot back: “No, I don’t. I sit up here and speak the truth.”

The video above shows that exchange and Bondi’s answers to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Jan. 15, 2025. Quotes are from the official hearing transcript, Senate Hearing 119-133 [1].

”I Sit Up Here and Speak the Truth”

Blumenthal, a former Connecticut attorney general, opened with a lecture. He said he was “really troubled, deeply disturbed by some of your responses and nonresponses” and told Bondi: “You say the right things, that you’re going to be the people’s lawyer—that’s what you have to say to be here—but I believe being the people’s lawyer means you have to be able to say no to the President of the United States” [1].

He listed what he wanted to hear: that Trump lost the 2020 election, that Jan. 6 rioters who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned, and that Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, shouldn’t get the job. Then he invoked her predecessors. “Do you really think that you can avoid the disgrace that they encountered or the repercussions from the White House if you say no to the President?” he asked. “Can you say no to the President of the United States when he asks you to do something unethical or illegal?” [1]

Bondi started with a correction. “Senator, first I need to clarify something that you said, that I have to sit up here and say these things. No, I don’t. I sit up here and speak the truth,” she said. “I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything. I will answer the questions to the best of my ability and honestly” [1].

The Kash Patel Questions

Blumenthal kept going after Patel. He asked whether a man who says he will “come after” people he alleges “helped Joe Biden rigged the Presidential elections,” and that he would close the FBI building on his first day, should run the bureau. “Shouldn’t you disavow them and ask him to recant them?” [1]

Bondi didn’t take the bait. “Senator, I am not familiar with all those comments. I have not discussed those comments with Mr. Patel,” she said. She pointed to Patel’s record as a career prosecutor and public defender with experience in the intelligence community, and said that if both were confirmed, “he will follow the law if I am the Attorney General of the United States of America, and I don’t believe he would do anything otherwise” [1].

Blumenthal said that wasn’t the answer he wanted. He had hoped to hear “that those comments are inappropriate and that you will ask him to disavow or recant them” [1].

”There Will Never Be an Enemies List”

Whitehouse took a different route, walking Bondi through her career. “As a courtroom prosecutor, did you ever have an enemies list?” “No, Senator.” As Florida’s attorney general? “No, Senator.” Would she have hired someone who had one? [1]

Bondi cut to the chase. “Senator, to cut to the chase, you’re clearly talking about Kash Patel. I don’t believe he has an enemies list,” she said, noting that Patel had tried 60 jury trials as a public defender and prosecutor [1].

When Whitehouse pressed her on whether she would enforce such a list, she was blunt: “Oh, Senator, I’m sorry. There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice” [1].

”Prosecutors Will Be Prosecuted … If Bad”

Whitehouse then went after her own past words. “You have said that Department of Justice prosecutors will be prosecuted in the Trump administration. What Department of Justice prosecutors will be prosecuted and why?” [1]

“I said that on TV. I said prosecutors will be prosecuted, to finish the quote, if bad. Investigators will be investigated,” Bondi answered. ”… None of us are above the law. Let me give you a really good example of a bad lawyer within the Justice Department—a guy named Clinesmith, who altered a FISA warrant, one of the most important things we can do in this country” [1].

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith altered an email used in the bureau’s surveillance applications for Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, according to Special Counsel John Durham’s report. He pleaded guilty to making a false statement and was sentenced on Jan. 29, 2021, to 12 months’ probation [2]. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., later grilled Durham over that plea deal.

Asked whether a prosecutor should “start with a name and look for a crime,” Bondi turned the question on the Biden years. “Senator, I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last 4 years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump. They targeted Donald Trump,” she said. “I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation” [1].

The Contacts Policy and TikTok

Whitehouse closed by asking whether she would keep the long-standing policy limiting contacts between the White House and the Justice Department. “Senator, yes,” Bondi said. “I will meet with White House Counsel and I will meet with the appropriate officials, and follow the contacts policy” [1].

Blumenthal got her support for the Kids Online Safety Act, which he said had passed the Senate 91-3 [1]. But on the TikTok law, which required the app to be sold or banned, he wanted a promise to enforce it on day one. Bondi wouldn’t give it: “Senator, as I discussed with you during our meeting, that is pending litigation within the Department of Justice” [1].

By the Numbers

54-46: the Senate vote confirming Bondi on Feb. 4, 2025 [3].
1: Democrats who voted for her, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania [3].
51-49: the Senate vote confirming Patel as FBI director on Feb. 20, 2025 [4].
26 years: Bondi’s career as she described it, 18 as a prosecutor and 8 as Florida’s attorney general [1].
About 1,400 employees and 400 lawyers: the Florida attorney general’s office she ran, by her count [1].
12 months: the probation sentence Clinesmith received [2].

What Happened Next

Bondi was confirmed. The Senate voted 54-46 on Feb. 4, 2025, with all Republicans and Fetterman voting yes [3]. Patel followed on Feb. 20, confirmed 51-49, with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining Democrats against him [4].

TikTok stayed up. Days after taking office, Bondi sent Apple and Google a letter informing them that the Trump administration would not prosecute them for supporting TikTok, NPR reported, and the app returned to their stores [5].

Comey was charged. On Sept. 25, 2025, a federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on two counts tied to his 2020 congressional testimony, false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. “I’m innocent,” Comey said [6]. Comey had also refused to sit for an interview with Durham, as HYGO News reported in Durham’s account to Congress.

A judge tossed the case, and Bondi’s department appealed. U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who brought the charges, had been unlawfully appointed, dismissing the cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Justice Department appealed both to the Fourth Circuit on Dec. 22, 2025 [7]. At a Sept. 15, 2026, argument, the appeals judges expressed skepticism about whether Halligan was lawfully appointed, the Washington Examiner reported [8].