Democrats Ask Bondi for Records on ‘Alarming’ Ethics Memo (1)

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to disclose records about her department’s transfer of ethics decisionmaking authority to political aides, which the lawmakers say clashes with promises she made under oath.

All 10 Democrats on the panel wrote Bondi and her acting No. 2 Thursday to object to the “alarming decision” to strip DOJ’s former top career official of responsibility over employee discipline, ethics recusals and waivers, and congressional disclosures. They were responding to a memo reported on by Bloomberg Law Feb. 15.

Their letter, which was also sent to DOJ’s inspector general, argued that a delegation memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued Jan. 27, before Bondi was sworn in to lead DOJ, shows she “misled Congress and the American people” during her Senate confirmation hearing.

Both during her Jan. 15 testimony and in written responses, the then-nominee pledged to consult with career ethics officials when deciding on potential conflicts of interests.

Bove’s memo means “you have coincidentally removed the appropriate career ethics official with whom you promised to consult,” they wrote to Bondi and Bove. It’s unclear if the Democrats were implying that Bondi was involved in the directive while awaiting Senate confirmation.

But Durbin and fellow Democratic panelists are framing the move to give two DOJ first-timers authority of sensitive decisions previously reserved for a career leader as particularly concerning given her prior lobbying work for clients who could come under department enforcement.

“Without a serious check on DOJ leadership’s decision-making regarding corporate interests, we are concerned that you will fail to hold companies accountable,” the lawmakers said.

They gave DOJ a deadline of March 6 to provide a copy of the memo and related records.

The department didn’t immediately respond to request about the letter.

A department spokesman earlier defended the decision to entrust such substantial authorities with two political aides.

The department spokesman noted that one of the delegation recipients, Bove’s associate Kendra Wharton, spent a decade as a criminal defense lawyer, and the other occupies a role—chief of staff to the DAG—that traditionally has also received the same responsibilities in prior versions of the memo.

In a statement, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who was cc’d on the letter, said, “The Biden DOJ threw ethics out the window by enabling political weaponization and rampant retaliation against DOJ and FBI whistleblowers, while ignoring congressional requests for information on those very topics.”

“Justice and accountability are being restored through Attorney General Bondi’s leadership,” Grassley added.