Fact-check: Senate confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi, attorney general nominee

In sometimes fiery exchanges, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi fielded questions during a Senate confirmation hearing for her attorney general nomination about whether she would prosecute President-elect Donald Trump’s declared political enemies.

Bondi also refused to deny falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election being stolen. In the Jan. 15 hearing, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., asked Bondi whether she would “retract” her previous statements that Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020. The two spoke over each other as Padilla pushed for a “yes-or-no” response and Bondi tried to answer differently. Eventually Bondi told the senator she was “not going to be bullied.”

Bondi’s hearing came on the second day of high-profile confirmation hearings for Trump’s second-term nominees.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also had a separate hearing the same day. Rubio called on the U.S. not to rely on China for supply chains, in line with Trump’s campaign promises to get tough on China. Rubio also said he disagreed with President Joe Biden’s Jan. 14 announcement to remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list.

Here’s a fact-check of Bondi’s statements.

Bondi repeats Trump line that Biden’s Justice Department targets political opponents

As Bondi responded to questions about whether she would prosecute Trump’s political opponents — which he vowed to do during the 2024 campaign — she claimed that Biden’s Justice Department has done the same. 

“No one will be prosecuted, investigated because they are a political opponent,” Bondi said. “That’s what we’ve seen for the last four years in this administration.”

We’ve rated similar Trump claims False. 

Trump was charged twice in federal court and separately in Manhattan and Fulton County, Georgia. In the Manhattan case, a unanimous jury found Trump guilty in May 2024 of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The other three cases were dropped or put on hold after Trump won the 2024 election.

Legal experts have told us there was no sign Trump was not given due process or that Biden ordered the prosecutions.

Bondi said she had ‘not listened’ to Trump’s call with Georgia officials to ‘find’ him votes in 2020 election

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., questioned Bondi about Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Durbin asked whether Bondi was concerned that Trump called an election official and asked him to find enough votes to change the election results.

Bondi responded that she has “not listened to the hourlong conversation, but it’s my understanding that is not what he asked him to do.”

Except, that is what Trump asked Raffensperger, a Republican, to do, according to the call’s transcript and recording.

In the call, Trump asked Georgia officials to investigate his unfounded allegations about 2020 election fraud. Many of his directives involved a quest to “find” enough ballots to put him in the winning column. (President Joe Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes.) Trump framed his requests to state officials as a mission to ferret out criminal wrongdoing.

“You can’t let it happen, and you are letting it happen,” Trump said. “You know, I mean, I’m notifying you that you’re letting it happen. So, look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”

Bondi wrongly claims a 2021 peaceful transfer of power

Durbin asked Bondi, who has repeatedly bolstered Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, if she was willing to say Trump lost. Bondi first dodged the question then claimed there was a peaceful transfer of power in 2021.

“(Biden) was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States,” she said. “There was a peaceful transition of power.”

Her statement ignores the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted the election certification. 

More than 1,500 people have been charged in federal court related to the riot, with charges including obstruction of law enforcement; violence with a deadly weapon; assault; disorderly conduct; and unlawful possession of firearms. 

Rioters forcibly breached and vandalized the Capitol, attacked police officers and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” Trump has promised to pardon defendants but it is unclear how many.

Bondi hits Schiff on California’s robbery statistics

As Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., asked Bondi whether she would investigate Trump’s political enemies, Bondi shot back, saying, “You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California right now is through the roof. Your robberies are 87% higher than the national average, that’s what I want to be focused on senator.”

Bondi is close on her assessment. For the 12 months of 2023, FBI data shows that the average rate of robbery per 100,000 people was about 89% higher in California than it was nationwide.

However, California had rates lower than the national average for homicide and for rape. The state was above the national average for aggravated assault, the fourth type of crime the FBI categorizes as violent.

PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report. 

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