[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 27 (Monday, February 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S806-S807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Department of Justice

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, last week, Pam Bondi was sworn in as the 
highest law enforcement officer in the United States of America. She is 
now the U.S. Attorney General. Unfortunately, as many of us feared, 
Attorney General Bondi took immediate steps to undermine the integrity 
of the Department of Justice.
  President Trump, after Bondi was confirmed, even said:

       I know I'm supposed to say she's going to be totally 
     impartial with respect to Democrats. . . . I'm not sure if 
     there's a possibility of totally.

  On day one in office, Attorney General Bondi created a so-called 
Weaponization Working Group--a task force to investigate ``the 
activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal 
enforcement authority over the last four years.'' Bondi said that she 
would ``investigate the investigators'' and ``prosecute the 
prosecutors,'' and now she is doing exactly that to seek 
``retribution'' against political enemies, real and perceived, that 
President Trump has repeatedly threatened.
  I wish I could say I am surprised by Attorney General Bondi's 
actions, but last week, I stood at this very spot sounding the alarm 
just before her confirmation vote. The writing was on the wall. 
Attorney General Bondi has made it clear that her foremost loyalty is 
to one person--President Trump--and she kept her promise on day one 
after being sworn into office by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas of 
the Supreme Court.
  Bondi's directive is only one step in misusing the powers of 
government to carry out President Trump's retribution against those he 
perceives to be his enemies, and the list is long. Even before Attorney 
General Bondi was confirmed, the Trump administration purged dozens of 
senior career law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice 
and the FBI. Many of these senior officials are reportedly being 
reassigned to immigration cases for which they have little or no 
expertise.
  Last week, FBI law enforcement personnel across the country had 
little over 48 hours to answer a survey about their work on any case 
related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, including whether they 
handled arrests, led operations, testified in trials, and more.
  Consider this for a moment. I don't know if you were here, Madam 
President, on that day, but those of us who were will never forget it. 
An insurrectionist mob left a rally for President Trump and came to 
Capitol Hill, crashed down the doors and windows, invaded the Capitol, 
and started beating up on the Capitol Hill Police. The net result: Four 
policemen died and 140 were seriously injured.
  They took control of the U.S. Senate Chamber and the House Chamber 
and went through their antics, posing for pictures sitting in the chair 
you are sitting in. They went through my desk and other desks too. It 
was their day, these so-called tourists, so-called political prisoners.
  I have said on the floor before and I have thought about this many 
times. If we were told that in the House of Parliament in London, a mob 
had a beaten down the wooden door and taken control of the House of 
Commons, what would have been the reaction in the United States? First, 
incredulous: That can't happen. England is a powerful nation. It has a 
rich history. A mob took over Parliament?
  That is exactly what happened on January 6. A mob took over the 
Congress of the United States, invaded the Capitol Building like the 
British in the War of 1812, and forced control at the expense of a lot 
of people who were prepared to die to defend us that day.
  That was a horrible incident. It is a horrible chapter in American 
history. Now the Trump administration is setting out to erase that 
history.
  The Soviet revisionists would look at this with some pride, to think 
that politicians in America are engaging in the same historical rewrite 
that they did for so many decades. This rewrite is to erase January 6 
as a reality, to whitewash it, to describe it as something that isn't. 
How they will ever overcome the hours and hours of videotapes which 
verify exactly what happened that day, I don't know, but they are going 
to start by cleansing the ranks of those in law enforcement who had 
anything to do with the 1,600 criminal defendants who were charged 
because of that day. Apparently, they wanted disclosure of the names of 
all those who took the assignment given to them at the Department of 
Justice or the FBI to investigate that crime of January 6. At the FBI, 
at least six FBI

[[Page S807]]

Executive Assistant Directors have been removed, including those who 
oversaw the National Security Branch, the Intelligence Branch, and the 
Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. The Trump 
administration has also removed the Special Agents in Charge of at 
least four major field offices and the Assistant Director of the 
Washington Field Office.

  The Acting Attorney General has also issued a memo firing a dozen 
career Department of Justice prosecutors.
  She is quoted as saying:

       Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I 
     do not believe that the leadership of the Department can 
     trust you in implementing the President's agenda faithfully.

  The Bureau's acting leaders are career FBI public servants who have 
reportedly resisted the push from Trump administration officials to 
punish FBI agents who were simply doing the work that was assigned to 
them to investigate the January 6 attack. If I am not mistaken, it was 
the largest criminal prosecution in history, and to think that many of 
the Assistant Attorneys General and members of the FBI had some role in 
its pursuit is no surprise whatsoever.
  So now the Trump administration wants these people to be outed--
publicly disclosed--with names and addresses. This weekend, the Bureau 
turned over the personnel details of thousands of FBI personnel. 
Thankfully, a temporary court order was issued on Friday that is 
keeping the Department of Justice from revealing those names.
  Is there any danger to these women and men who swore allegiance to 
the United States and its Constitution and pursued the official duties 
of the Department of Justice? Why, of course, there is. The previous 
head of the FBI told us that the situation is grim when it comes to 
domestic terrorism in the United States. So is he suggesting that, 
perhaps, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers can't wait to get this 
list the Trump administration has produced--a list of those who did 
their duty under the Constitution and pursued these cases on the 
January 6 outrage? I am afraid that is a fact.
  That temporary court order is the only thing between these White 
nationalist-extremist groups and the men and women who dedicated their 
lives to law enforcement in this country. That is where we have come to 
in just a few short days of the new Trump administration.
  Tomorrow, FBI probationary agents and personnel stationed around the 
world are required to submit justifications for their continued 
employment. This could lead to the firing of up to 3,000 law 
enforcement officials. Don't tell me you want to fight crime. Don't 
tell me you want to stop narcotics and then dismiss 3,000 FBI and 
Department of Justice officials. These mass layoffs, forced 
retirements, and involuntary reassignments of experienced Department of 
Justice and FBI officials represent an outright attack on public safety 
by President Trump.
  America will be less safe because of this political charade that is 
going on in the Department of Justice. These mass layoffs of these 
experienced people mean that your family, your town, your neighborhood 
will be less safe. The purge is already leading to widespread 
disruption and delay in prosecutions, investigations, and sensitive 
operations. The Joint Terrorism Task Forces have been asked to focus on 
President Trump's immigration-related initiatives, which means valuable 
resources and personnel will be shifted away from State and local and 
Federal partners fighting foreign and domestic terrorism.
  As America faces a heightened threat landscape, these removals and 
reassignments are crippling not only to the Justice Department and the 
FBI but to the 93 U.S. Attorney's Offices and the 55 FBI field offices 
across the country. The loss of potentially thousands of Federal law 
enforcement jobs will put a burden on local field offices; slow ongoing 
casework; increase the unemployment rates nationwide in law 
enforcement; and harm local economies.
  President Trump may claim to back the blue--he may pose with men and 
women of law enforcement--but, apparently, he is only interested in 
doing so when it is politically convenient and consistent with his 
political agenda.
  Before Ms. Bondi's confirmation, my concerns about how she would lead 
the Department were based on her history as President Trump's personal 
lawyer, but the leadership of Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, is no 
longer hypothetical. Her directives and actions are now impacting a lot 
of innocent people and a lot of good Americans who have dedicated their 
lives to public service and law enforcement. We need to work together 
on a bipartisan basis to push back against these attacks on the 
Department of Justice and the FBI to protect the national security of 
the United States.