Bondi testified to Whitehouse under oath that she would not “target people simply because of their political affiliation”
Recent Trump Presidential Memoranda directed DOJ to investigate two former Trump administration officials
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Pam Bondi reminding the Attorney General that she testified under oath to Congress that she would reject directives “to start with a name and look for a crime” and would “not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”
Last week, President Trump issued Presidential Memoranda directing the Department of Justice to investigate Christopher Krebs, Trump’s Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during his first term, and Miles Taylor, who served as Chief of Staff of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration. Krebs and Taylor were vocal critics of President Trump, and Taylor was included on FBI Director Kash Patel’s “Enemies List.”
Whitehouse wrote to Bondi in the new letter, “You may recall that at your confirmation hearing on January 15, 2025, I asked you the following question: ‘[I]t would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime. It’s the prosecutor’s job to start with a crime and look for a name, correct?’”
In her confirmation hearing, Attorney General Bondi responded by making false claims about the “weaponization” of the justice system during the Biden Administration and testified: “That will not be the case if I am attorney general. I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered even-handedly throughout this country.”
Whitehouse continued in his letter, “On April 9, 2025, President Trump issued Presidential Memoranda singling out for investigation Christopher Krebs, former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security.”
“Now that President Trump has given you two names and asked you to look for a crime, you face a pretty clear test. It ought to be an easy one,” Whitehouse concluded.
The text of the letter is below and a PDF is available here.
April 14, 2025
The Honorable Pamela Bondi
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Attorney General Bondi:
You may recall that at your confirmation hearing on January 15, 2025, I asked you the following question: “[I]t would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime. It’s the prosecutor’s job to start with a crime and look for a name, correct?”
In response, you gave the following response about purported “weaponization” of the justice system under the Biden Administration:
I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what’s been happening to Donald Trump. They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him. Actually, starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case if I am attorney general. I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered even-handedly throughout this country.
On April 9, 2025, President Trump issued Presidential Memoranda singling out for investigation Christopher Krebs, former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Miles Taylor, former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security.
Now that President Trump has given you two names and asked you to look for a crime, you face a pretty clear test. It ought to be an easy one.
