The confirmation hearing of Pam Bondi for attorney general was more alarming and foreboding than I had expected. In advance, I thought she would mount enough of a defense of Justice Department independence and the rule of law to provide a fig leaf of cover for her true aims and those of Donald Trump, making it harder for less sophisticated observers to see through the charade. That would have been problematic in its own right, but the alternative turned out to be worse.

Instead, Bondi was brazen in offering nods to right-wing conspiracies, Fox News talking points, and Trump ego-stroking. Whatever she did to position herself as a colorable defender of the rule of law was overwhelmed by her refusal to acknowledge Trump lost in 2020, her expressed horror with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations, and her dodging of any question that would put her at odds with Trump. If she can’t create daylight between herself and Trump now in the abstract, what chance is there of her doing so when the real heat is on?