Today in Politics, Bulletin 224. 10/7/25

… AG Pam Bondi had a heated and contentious hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee where she refused to answer questions, made personal attacks against Democratic senators, and got extremely defensive and angry whenever the subject of Jeffrey Epstein came up.

… Last night, Bondi released records on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, which gave Republicans on the committee their talking point for the day so right-wing media could refuse to cover the substance of the hearing.

… Ranking Member Dick Durbin’s opening remarks to Bondi: “You disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and the National cryptocurrency enforcement team, despite the growing threat of foreign election interference and the drastic rise in cryptocurrency crimes. You forced out almost 75% of the Civil Rights Div’s career attorneys while hate crimes are on the rise. You fired more than 100 immigration judges. While the immigration case backlog is more than 3 million. You cut the public integrity section from 30 prosecutors to two, while political corruption skyrocket.”

… “Last year, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, was allegedly recorded accepting a $50,000 bag of cash in exchange for promising immigration enforcement related contracts. Under your leadership, the investigation into Homan was dropped after Trump pardoned nearly 1600 J6 insurrectionists, including more than 600 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. DOJ is arguing in court that these pardons provide immunity for wholly unrelated crimes in multiple cases.”

… “Jared Weiss was filmed on J6, encouraging his fellow rioters to attack the Metro PD officers, and he said, ‘f them, kill him.’ What happened to Weiss? He’s been hired by you as a senior adviser. In Feb, you said the Epstein client list was, quote, ‘sitting on my desk right now for review.’ 8 months later, you still haven’t produced these files. And a credible whistleblower told my office that FBI agents were directed to flag any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”

… “Although you’ve been a registered foreign agent for Qatar, you didn’t recuse yourself from signing off on Trump’s solicitation of a free jet from the royal family, even though this gift was clearly illegal. Connections to Bondi seem to yield more favorable outcomes for defendants.”

… Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): “There has been reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photos? Have you seen them? Bondi: You sit here and try to slander President Trump left and right.” (She never answered the question).

… Mehdi Hasan: “Notice her non-answer. This is explosive. Should be explosive. The US AG who said she had the Epstein files on her desk cannot say whether or not the FBI has pix of Trump with half-naked women, which one witness who knew Epstein has said he has seen.”

… Whitehouse: “What became of the $50,000 in cash that the FBI gave to Homan? Bondi: The investigation of Homan was subjected to a full review. They found no evidence of wrongdoing. Whitehouse: What became of the $50,000? Did the FBI get it back? Bondi: You’re welcome to talk to the FBI. Whitehouse: They report to you. Can’t you answer this? Did Homan keep the $50,000?” Bondi refused to answer.

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “Her contempt is extraordinary. Trump thinks he’s a king. He believes he’s accountable to no one. Not Congress. Not the American people. And so when his people testify before the Senate, they act like they are bound by no rules and no laws.”

… Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) seemed to be the only Republican genuinely concerned about getting to the bottom of Epstein. He asked about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s interview where he gave new details: “Have you interviewed Lutnick? Bondi: No, senator. Kennedy: Do you plan to? Bondi: If he wants to talk to the FBI. Kennedy: Don’t you think you ought to talk to him after that interview? (No response from Bondi). Maybe we ought to get Lutnick in here then.”

… Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT): “There’s a tape, right, with Homan. Is there a tape with audio and video of the transfer of $50k? Bondi: You would have to talk to Director Patel about that. Welch: I’m talking to you. Bondi: I don’t know the answer. Welch: You do know. Bondi: Don’t call me a liar! And you’re not gonna sit here and slander Tom Homan.”

… Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA): Was it true when the WH press secretary denied that Homan took the money? Bondi: I was not in office, I was not confirmed when that was handled. Schiff: Did he take the money? Bondi: That happened prior to my confirmation. Karoline Leavitt is one of the most trustworthy human beings I know. And if you worked for me, you would’ve been fired because you were censured by Congress.”

… Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA): “Do you believe govt officials are obligated to follow court orders whether they agree with them or not? Bondi: I wish you loved your state of California as much as you hate President Trump. Padilla: I asked a simple yes or no question.”

… Schiff complained repeatedly that Bondi refused to answer any questions from senators: “This is supposed to be an oversight hearing. Dozens of prosecutors have been fired simply because they worked on cases investigating the former president. Bondi: What about the fires in California? What about the riots in LA?”

… Schiff: “I think it’s valuable that the American people get a sense of what you have refused to answer today. So these are just some of the questions you refuse to answer, but or have answered with personal attacks on members of this committee:

• You were asked whether you consulted with career ethics lawyers, as you promised you would do during your nomination hearing.

• When you approved the president receiving a $400 million gift from the Qataris, you refused to answer that question.

• You were asked who or what role you may have played, or who played the role in asking the Trump’s name be flagged in any of the Epstein documents gathered by the FBI? You refuse to answer that question.

• You were asked whether Homan kept the $50,000 bribe money. You refuse to answer that question.

• You were asked whether Homan paid taxes on the $50,000 bribe money. You refused to answer that question.

• You were asked, did career prosecutors find insufficient evidence to charge James Comey. You refused to answer that question.

• You were asked, how are military strikes on these boats in the Caribbean legal. And you refuse to even answer that question.

• You are asked, did you discuss indicting James Comey with the president? You refused to answer that question.

• You were asked, did you approve the firing of antitrust lawyers who disagreed with the Hewlett Packard merger. You refused to answer that question.

• You were asked whether you support a restoration fund for violent insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on J6. Refuse to answer that question.

• You were asked whether you were firing career professionals just because they worked on J6 investigations. You refuse to answer that question.

• You were asked by my colleague whether you believe govt officials, like immigration officials, have to abide by court orders. You wouldn’t answer that question.

… Republicans were yelling in the hearing and on Fox about the report released by Bondi last night before this hearing showing that Jack Smith subpoenaed phone data of 8 Republican senators who were contacted by Trump right before J6. Sen. Lindsey Graham was yelling in the hearing: “Can you tell me why my phone records were sought by the Jack Smith agents? Why did they ask to know who I called and what I was doing from January 4th to the 7th? Can you tell me that?”

… Glenn Greenwald: “Lindsey has spent his whole career defending mass warrantless surveillance on Americans. Now that he is a surveillance target, he’s enraged.”

… Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Fox: “The Biden DOJ specifically targeted a group of us. They asked for our call records so they could see who we talked to, who called us. I believe also track our location over a period of days. This is outrageous. I mean, this is really unbelievable. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. It’s a violation of the First Amendment. It’s the violation of separation of powers. And it also goes to show you the extent to which the Biden admin was so corrupt using the FBI to target their political enemies.”

… MSNBC’s justice correspondent Ken Dilanian: “Hawley just suggested that ‘weaponization’ under the FBI as run by Trump appointee Christopher Wray was worse than the J. Edgar Hoover-era abuses. He said without basis that senators had been ‘wiretapped.’ His remarks were completely untethered from reality.”

… Politico’s Kyle Cheney: “Hawley falsely claiming that the FBI ‘tapped’ his and other senators’ phones. The documents show a pull of non-content phone records from Jan. 4-7, 2021 – with some key details (like the limitations built into the order) still unknown.”

… Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz: “Ron Johnson - RON JOHNSON - corrected a Newsmax host who said this last night, pointing out that the FBI only obtained metadata.”

… Kyle Cheney: “It actually seems sort of obvious that if you’re investigating a former president for trying to subvert an election, you’d probe some of contacts he and alleged co-conspirators had with people he was trying to enlist/pressure to overturn the results. In other words, if you start from the premise that the entire probe was political, then seeking lawmakers’ toll records would be inherently bad. But if you view the probe as righteous or justified, then it’s not hard to see why those records would be pertinent.”

… Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): “The Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into ‘election conspiracy’. Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith’s elector case against Trump. WORSE THAN WATERGATE.”

… Jamie Dupree: “Let’s start with the top name on this GOP list. Why would the FBI have tracked Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) about J6? Because his office was involved in Trump’s fake electors effort to overturn Biden’s victory. We know from the J6 tapes - released by House Republicans - that there is video of two Trump allies handing off fake elector documents from WI and MI to aides of Kelly on Jan. 5. The tapes also have video of an aide to Kelly trying to get those same fake elector documents to Sen. Ron Johnson on J6 - with a handoff right in front of the Supreme Court.”

… Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Fox: “I expected that countries like China and North Korea would go after me when I got to the Senate. But I never expected it would be my own country under Joe Biden tapping my phone. The Biden FBI spied on US Senators. They came after President Trump. They came after me. They will come after you, too. We don’t need more investigations. People need to go to JAIL.”

… Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Fox: “Quite honestly, by now it should be obvious to every American that it’s not the Republicans that are a threat to our democracy. It’s President Obama, it’s President Biden.”

… Quick update from the war zone in Portland:

… Spencer Kuvin, who represents Epstein survivors, to Meidas: “We now know from the photographs police took during the search warrant inspection that there were computer monitors with little Post-its on them saying, ‘Don’t take this.’ Well, the computer unit that contained all the data, information, and video—was gone. We also know that when he was under threat of prosecution, he took all this info, hid it away, and likely moved it off-site to the US Virgin Islands, thinking it would be safe there.”

… “But eventually, the FBI confiscated all of it. So, we know the FBI has it. We have to assume they reviewed it—and that some agent, or multiple agents, have created internal memos identifying who appears on those videos. And that’s what we need: the internal FBI memos showing who they’ve identified on the recordings.”

… Laura Loomer: “I strongly advise AGAINST anyone lobbying the Trump admin and the DOJ to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell. Do not do it. I repeat. Do not do it. There will be no coming back from that. I repeat again. For the love of God. Do Not Do It.”

… MSNBC: “A top prosecutor in VA has informed colleagues she plans to decline to seek charges against NY AG Letitia James, resisting intense pressure from President Trump. Elizabeth Yusi, who oversees major criminal prosecutions in the Norfolk office of the E. District of VA, has confided to co-workers that she sees no probable cause to believe James engaged in mortgage fraud. Yusi plans to present her conclusion to the president’s new interim US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, in the coming weeks.”

… “Prosecutors in the District are now bracing for Yusi to be fired for her own resistance to try a case that many lawyers have said lacks sufficient evidence. Trump has publicly called on DOJ to criminally prosecute James, despite the conclusion of career prosecutors that they cannot prove she lied or intended to lie on a mortgage application for her niece’s home.”

… “Career prosecutors in the District also fear their colleagues will be pressured to seek an indictment against James, or risk being fired. Halligan has been closely monitoring progress on the case.”

… MSNBC: “Trump’s new acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan has recruited prosecutors from outside her office to take James Comey to trial, after being unable to find any federal prosecutors in her own office willing to pursue the charges.”

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA) just broke away from Republican leadership on the shutdown: “I’m going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district.”

… “No, I’m not towing the party line on this, or playing loyalty games. I’m carving my own lane. And I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year. Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!”

Reminder no Bulletin tomorrow but there will be my weekly podcast Uncovered where we do a deep dive of the biggest stories of the day. There is no Ask the Editor show tomorrow though because this is the day we are going on our one day fall foliage tour since things are at their peak. We are heading up through Maine into northern NH and into the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Hopefully some good pics.

Next Bulletin out Thursday. If you missed yesterday’s, you can find it here.

… Mike Johnson was asked about Greene’s comments: Q - “Greene specifically said that Republicans do not have a plan to deal with healthcare. Johnson: Congresswoman Greene does not serve on the committees of jurisdiction that deal with those specialized issues. She’s probably not read in. Not everyone knows everything.”

… Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) used another one of Greene’s posts in his press conference today: “As Marjorie Taylor Greene herself has acknowledged, tens of millions will see an increase in their health care. A growing number of Republicans are adopting the