Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, will be asked if she can stand up to Donald Trump, who has made it clear that he wants the government’s top lawyer to execute his commands.
Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general, will head into her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday with a solid reputation as a prosecutor and a critical question looming: Would she stand up to Mr. Trump?
Mr. Trump selected Ms. Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and lobbyist, to replace his first pick, Matt Gaetz, the former Republican representative of Florida who withdrew after a furor over allegations of sexual misconduct, including with an underage girl.
Most Democrats are still likely to oppose Ms. Bondi, 59, but she is a far more conventional, qualified candidate than Mr. Gaetz. That virtually ensures support among Senate Republicans, with the distinct possibility she will pick up a Democrat or two.
If her hearings do not produce much drama, her tenure at the department almost certainly will. An emboldened Mr. Trump, embittered by the two federal prosecutions against him, has made it clear that he wants senior Justice Department officials to execute his policy commands, investigate those who investigated him and perhaps prosecute his political enemies.
“The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” she declared on Fox News in 2023, when asked whether it would be appropriate to open cases related to the department’s prosecutions under Jack Smith, the special counsel.
Richard Donoghue, the former Justice Department official who resisted Mr. Trump’s effort to install election-denying loyalists to top department posts after he lost the 2020 election, said the ideal candidate operates above partisanship. “You want, ideally, to ensure that partisan political considerations never play into the department’s decisions and positions when it comes to investigations and prosecutions,” he said.