Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
Attorney General Pam Bondi lashed out at judges and lawmakers at a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday that followed reports of President Donald Trump's gripes with her tenure. The hearing devolved into a series of shouting matches as Democrats peppered Bondi with questions about her department's handling of its Jeffrey Epstein records and its attempts to prosecute critics of President Donald Trump.
Bondi, in turn, repeatedly accused Democrats of 'theatrics' and said that she would not 'get in the gutter with these people.' The attorney general also at times appeared to be reading off pre-written talking points, singing Trump's praises and calling him 'the greatest president in American history.' Bondi also accused those she deemed 'liberal activist judges' of partaking in 'coordinated judicial opposition' to the Trump administration. The hearing took place hours after NBC News reported that a federal grand jury had rejected the Trump administration's attempts to indict Democratic lawmakers over a social media video that urged members of the military and intelligence communities to follow their oaths and refuse to obey 'illegal orders.' “Weaponization has ended,” Bondi declared, after telling the committee's chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, that she had received his criminal referral asking for Trump critic John Brennan to be indicted. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat of Maryland, said that Bondi had “turned the people’s Department of Justice into Trump’s instrument of revenge.' “Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and you deliver every time he tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, and members of Congress,” Raskin said. A White House aide told NBC News that Trump has complained about Bondi to aides and allies in recent weeks, describing her as weak and insufficiently aggressive in pursuing cases against his perceived opponents. Responding to reports that first emerged in The Wall Street Journal, the White House issued a statement from Trump saying that Bondi was 'doing an excellent job,' and also passed along statements praising Bondi from Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Bondi and Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and prominent Trump critic, did reach a moment of collegiality after Swalwell raised concerns with his family's safety. Swalwell, who has repeatedly spoken out about receiving death threats, told NBC News last year that the Justice Department hadn't brought charges against individuals who threatened him, and said he had limited his kids from being in the front yard of their home due to the threats. Swalwell asked Bondi at Wednesday's hearing why the Justice Department hadn’t brought charges against anyone. 'None of you should be threatened, ever,' Bondi said, addressing all the lawmakers present. 'None of your children should be threatened. None of your families should be threatened.'
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