Bondi demurs on targeting Trump foes amid chatter about preemptive pardons: Would Pam Bondi prosecute Jack Smith, Merrick Garland or Liz Cheney? The would-be attorney general refused to say

In other words, a year and a half ago, Bondi’s focus was on Republicans taking control and targeting Trump’s perceived foes. That, of course, was before the Floridian was the prospective nominee for U.S. attorney general. Is she still equally eager to launch these kinds of investigations 18 months later? As NBC News noted, Bondi no longer wants to talk about it.

After questions by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, about whether Bondi would ever prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland or former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, Bondi answered, “I am not going to answer hypotheticals.”

It would’ve been quite easy for the prospective Justice Department nominee to say, “Of course I will never allow for politically motivated prosecutions,” but she instead demurred, as if the question itself lacked legitimacy.

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Link to tweet

.....None of this has escaped the attention of Trump’s potential targets, including Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chaired the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee — a panel the president-elect has condemned in hysterical terms. The longtime Mississippi congressman told Punchbowl News that he’d spoken to the White House counsel’s office about the issue, adding that he’d accept a pardon if offered.

“I believe Donald Trump when he says he’s going to inflict retribution on this,” Thompson said. “I believe when he says my name and Liz Cheney and the others. I believe him.”

It’s unlikely that Bondi’s comments during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing proved reassuring to Thompson or the president-elect’s other potential targets.