WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement during a Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting on the nominations of Harmeet Dhillon, to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division; Aaron Reitz, to be Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy; and D. John Sauer, to be Solicitor General of the United States. During his opening remarks, Durbin condemned Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for politicizing the Department of Justice and FBI in just the few weeks since being confirmed.
Key Quotes:
“It was just over a month ago that the Senate confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi, and it has only been three weeks since the Senate confirmed Kash Patel [as FBI Director]. In that time, Bondi and Patel have plowed through many of the guardrails that protect us from the Justice Department and FBI’s vast investigative and prosecutorial authorities being used as weapons against the American people.”
“During her confirmation hearing, Ms. Bondi said, ‘I believe that the Justice Department must be independent and must act independently. Politics will not play a part.’ Now that she has been confirmed, we’re hearing something different. Last week, in an interview on Fox with Sean Hannity, the Attorney General said, ‘We’re still trying to find a lot of people in the FBI and also in the Department of Justice who despise Donald Trump, despise us—we’re going to root them out. We will find them, and they will no longer be employed.’ That does not sound like a declaration of independence and apolitical conduct from the Justice Department.”
“Just last week, in his first day on the job, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche destroyed two additional guardrails. He removed the senior career officials who headed the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of the Pardon Attorney. It’s not hard to imagine how corrupting these changes will be. Political appointees now have sole decision-making responsibility on matters related to ethics, employee discipline, and whistleblower complaints, among other things.”
“Now [if] the Attorney General doesn’t want to recuse herself from deciding whether to grant a contract to detain immigrants to her former client GEO Group, she just needs to check with a political appointee who reports to her. And if Todd Blanche does not want to recuse himself from a decision regarding his former client, President Trump, he just needs to check with a political appointee who reports to him.”
“During his confirmation hearing, Kash Patel claimed that he didn’t know anything about the purge of senior career FBI officials, and he promised that if confirmed, he would ‘honor the internal review process of the FBI before removing additional officials.’ Of course, we now know from highly credible sources that Mr. Patel was personally directing the removals of senior FBI officials as a private citizen.”
“Since he was confirmed, Patel has continued the purge. He has installed political loyalists in numerous critical positions, including for the first time in history the Deputy Director—MAGA podcaster Dan Bongino—[as well as the individuals] serving as General Counsel, head of Congressional Affairs, and head of Public Affairs. And my staff has also learned that Patel is slashing staffing for FBI offices with critical expertise and responsibilities, including the civil rights unit and the public corruption unit.”
“The leadership and experience vacuum created by the Bondi-Patel purge has greatly weakened the Justice Department and the FBI’s ability to protect the country from public safety and national security threats and has made Americans less safe. Trump appointees have removed dozens of senior career civil servants at those departments, including the longtime nonpartisan leaders of our counterterrorism and counterespionage efforts.”
“These career civil servants are responsible for coordinating the Justice Department and FBI’s fight against terrorism. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear that our nation will pay the price sooner rather than later for these decisions.”
Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.
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