'Fealty' vs 'independence': Trump picks his defense lawyers for top Justice Department posts

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WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump's plan to staff top positions at the Justice Department leadership with his personal lawyers from years of congressional and criminal investigations has sparked some concerns from his critics about whether they will represent him or the country.

Those concerns appeared front and center among Democrats at Pam Bondi's Senate confirmation hearings for attorney general Wednesday and Thursday.

“This time around, President-elect Trump has vowed not just to use the Justice Department to advance his own political interests, but also to seek ‘retribution’ against ‘the enemy within,’” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told Bondi in his opening statement. “I need to know you would tell the president ‘No’ if you were asked to do something that is wrong, illegal or unconstitutional.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said attorneys general of both parties prevented White House interference with criminal investigations and asked Bondi if she would continue that policy.

“Yes, I believe that the Justice Department must be independent and must act independently,” Bondi said. “The No. 1 job is to enforce the law fairly and evenhandedly, and that’s what will be done if I am confirmed as the attorney general.”

'Politics will not play a part'

“Politics will not play a part,” Bondi added. “I’ve demonstrated that my entire career as a prosecutor, as attorney general and I will continue to do that.”

Previous attorneys general have included both those with a close allegiance to the presidents who appointed them – personal lawyers, friends, a brother – and those who were more independent-minded.

Trump chose people who have defended him before. Pam Bondi, his choice for attorney general, represented Trump at his first Senate impeachment trial. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who were named for deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general, respectively, defended him in multiple criminal cases. John Sauer, who represented Trump at the Supreme Court, was picked for solicitor general to argue government cases before the high court.

Ty Cobb, a former Justice Department official and later special counsel at the White House during Trump’s first term, called the strategy "unfortunate."

“There’s really no pretense of independence throughout Trump’s choices for leadership positions,” Cobb said. “It’s much more about fealty than independence, experience or previous leadership.”

Gates McGavick, a spokesperson for Trump's transition, said Bondi was chosen for her qualifications to deliver on Trump's priority of fighting crime.

"Pam Bondi was nominated for Attorney General because of her historic qualifications, including 18 years as a prosecutor and 8 years as Florida's Attorney General," McGavick said. "If confirmed she will focus on returning the Department of Justice to its focus of fighting crime and in doing so help President Trump deliver on his Make America Safe Again agenda."

Blanche and Bove didn't respond to requests for comment.

Trump lawyers echo his complaints before being chosen for DOJ

Trump chose his personal lawyers for a number of top posts in the White House and Justice Department, but they also brought strong legal credentials.

Bondi is the former Florida attorney general and was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years. She echoed his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud against Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 and campaigned for him in 2024.

Blanche and Bove were each federal prosecutors in New York City and each clerked for two federal judges. Blanche prosecuted gangs and Bove prosecuted terrorists and international drug traffickers in the national security unit.

Each of the lawyers has echoed Trump in criticizing federal prosecutors. Trump, who was indicted twice on federal charges has said his prosecution was politically motivated. He has threatened to throw Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and special counsel Jack Smith in jail. The charges against Trump were dropped after he won the election per DOJ policy not prosecute a sitting president.

During the campaign, Trump said he would fire Smith to shut down the cases. “It’s so easy − I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Oct. 24. Smith resigned Jan. 10.

Bondi said during the campaign “the Department of Justice, the prosecutors, will be prosecuted – the bad ones.”

Blanche and Bove blasted Smith in a letter about his final report on the Trump investigation as an “out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor,” whose investigation of Trump was a “politically-motivated attack” and resulted in a report that is a “lawless political stunt.”

Trump's initial choice for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., was a political ally with limited legal experience, who was greeted with skepticism from even some Republicans. But Gaetz withdrew from consideration when it became apparent he lacked the votes for confirmation, after which Trump chose Bondi.

'I'm enthused'

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said after meeting with Bondi in December she is “a well-qualified nominee with an impressive legal career” who will focus on “enforcing laws and protecting Americans’ safety.”

“I’m enthused with her work as Attorney General of Florida and what she’s done as a prosecutor,” Grassley said. “I think we’re going to find the Justice Department prosecuting and not being used as a political weapon against political enemies.”

Mimi Rocah, who worked with Blanche as a federal prosecutor in New York, said after he was chosen in November that he knows what the Justice Department is supposed to be and how it is meant to function.

“He believes in the vision of the Department of Justice to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons,” Rocah told MSNBC.

Presidents gauge loyalty and independence in attorneys general

Close ties between a president and attorney general are nothing new.

President John Kennedy hired his brother Robert F. Kennedy as attorney general. President Richard Nixon picked his personal lawyer, John Mitchell. And former Attorney General Eric Holder called himself President Barack Obama’s “wingman.”

Claire Finkelstein, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, said Kennedy shouldn’t have hired his brother and Trump shouldn’t hire his own lawyers because of the appearance they could do his bidding rather than the country’s.

“It sets the wrong tone, especially for the attorney general,” Finkelstein said. “He should be doing everything he can to counter the impression that there is any kind of loyalty test.”

She said attorneys general and their aides should be chosen by who will assess what is best for the country rather than the president.

“It’s whether they have the courage to tell him, 'You’re making a mistake, Mr. President,'” Finkelstein said.

JFK comparisons

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said having a good relationship between an attorney general and president is “a good thing,” which is probably why Kennedy picked his brother.

“The idea that there’s something wrong with that is just absolutely ridiculous," Graham said. “I’m glad he picked you. He knows you, he trusts you and you’re highly qualified.”

Some Justice Department officials have touted their independence.

“I am not the president’s lawyer; I am the United States’ lawyer,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland, a former federal appeals judge.

Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney who is now a law professor at the University of Michigan, said President Barack Obama encouraged federal prosecutors in his administration not to think they worked for him personally.

“He told us to always remember that our loyalty was to the Constitution and not to him,” McQuade said. “He said that even though he appointed us, we were to serve the American people.”

Trump held AG Sessions' resignation letter like 'shock collar': report

When Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, recused himself in March 2017 from handling the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump responded with anger and urged him to reconsider, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the probe.

Trump questioned why Sessions didn’t defend him like the late Roy Cohn, a famously combative lawyer who helped the late Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., investigate alleged communists during the 1950s, according to Mueller’s report.

“I don’t have a lawyer,” Trump said the day after Sessions’ recusal, according to the report.

Trump initially refused a resignation letter from Sessions in May 2018 but fired him after that year's midterm elections.

The FBI director overseeing the Russia investigation, James Comey, said Trump told him, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’’ Trump later fired Comey.

'She deserves a chance to show her stuff'

Former Attorney Bill Barr debunked Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud after the 2020 election and left office a month before the end of the term. He called Trump’s "avalanche" of claims "nonsense," "absolute rubbish" and a barnyard epithet.

Besides naming Smith to investigate Trump, Garland appointed special counsels to investigate Joe Biden storing classified documents at his home and office between serving as vice president and president, and his son Hunter Biden for gun and tax charges.

Garland denied taking direction from the White House and said prosecutors would “make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”

Cobb said loyalty to a president such as Bondi’s shouldn’t be disqualifying “as long as there is character when needed."

“She deserves a chance to show her stuff,” Cobb said. “She may help Trump and the country avoid the vengeance Trump would want to wreak on his enemies."