Bondi grilled on DOJ independence, corporate lobbying

By Pamela King | 01/15/2025 01:27 PM EST

President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general pick worked on behalf of a waste management company that resisted cleaning up nuclear waste from a landfill.

Pam Bondi testifies during her confirmation hearing.

Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, testifies during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Francis Chung/POLITICO

Democratic senators on Wednesday raised concerns about who President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general would work for if she is confirmed to lead the Department of Justice.

DOJ’s top client should be the American people — not the president or “wealthy special interests,” said Dick Durbin of Illinois, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the start of Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing.

“I’m concerned that you failed to identify your extensive lobbying for foreign governments and big corporations as potential conflicts of interest,” Durbin continued.

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Among the corporations Bondi lobbied for is the waste management company Republic Services Procurement, which reportedly fought the federal government’s efforts to require the company to remove radioactive nuclear waste from a Missouri dump site, according to a recent report from the advocacy group Public Citizen.

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