On the recordFebruary 4, 2025
as my colleague Senator Schiff from California has just so powerfully stated, we are in the midst of a constitutional crisis--a crisis that would have been unimaginable just weeks ago, a crisis that involves a President disobeying the law. Now, Presidents in the past have disobeyed the law. They have sought to test the boundaries of their power, and the courts have blocked them. But never has a President violated so many significant laws and the Constitution so rapidly, so repeatedly, that we are, as Senator Schiff said, lost in the chaos. And it falls to the arbiters of law-- our courts--but it is also incumbent on the enforcers of the law. Any of us who have served in the Department of Justice--I was U.S. attorney for Connecticut for 4\1/2\ years--knows that the most important decisions that any prosecutor, any law enforcer makes is whether to uphold the rule of law and sometimes say no to an FBI agent who is too enthusiastic about a case and wants to indict someone who could not be convicted, a public official who is close personally or politically and has overstepped their powers or ethics. To be fair, independent, objective, to be completely impartial, and to uphold the rule of law is the first duty of anyone in the U.S. Department of Justice. I have more than respect, I have reverence for the Department of Justice, and that is why I am so deeply disappointed that we are here tonight for the nomination of Pam Bondi.…
