United States Attorney-General Pam Bondi has faced heated questioning from senators over claims she is transforming the justice system into a "shield for the president and his political allies".
Critics have claimed Ms Bondi has failed to maintain the guardrails separating the department from the White House.
Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the department under Ms Bondi had "become a shield for the president and his political allies when they engage in misconduct".
"President Biden never directed the attorney-general to prosecute his political opponents," he said on Tuesday.
"What has taken place since January 20, 2025 would make even President Nixon recoil.
"In eight short months, you have fundamentally transformed the justice department and left an enormous stain in American history. It will take decades to recover."
During the 2024 election campaign Donald Trump repeatedly warned that he would go after his political foes and appeared to berate Ms Bondi in a recent social media post over a lack of action.
Shortly afterwards federal prosecutors sent shock waves through Washington by indicting former FBI director James Comey, who led a probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Comey, who is due in court on Wednesday, is accused of lying to congress in a case many legal experts say looks specious.
The launch of investigations into Senator Adam Schiff, former national security advisor John Bolton and New York Attorney-General Letitia James – all of whom have publicly opposed Mr Trump – have added to the controversy.
All three were named in the post in which Mr Trump apparently upbraided Ms Bondi.
Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said he was "gravely concerned" by Mr Trump's post.
"Urging you to go after and to indict and to prosecute specific, named people [seems] to have led to dramatic and sudden action by the department," he said, addressing Ms Bondi.
Senators also pressed Ms Bondi on the legal basis for Mr Trump's use of federal troops in cities he says are rife with crime.
Critics say the crackdown is unconstitutional.
The president has focused on Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Memphis and Portland, all of which have Democratic leaders.
Vow to end 'weaponisation' of government
Ms Bondi defended her record and told senators she was working to reinstate public faith after the "weaponisation" of her department under the previous administration.
"We are returning to our core mission of fighting real crime," she said.
"While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months we have made tremendous progress towards those ends."
Before his election Mr Trump was facing multiple indictments for allegedly hoarding classified government documents and leading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election result.
Republicans say Ms Bondi's team has fewer questions to be answer than those in Joe Biden's Department of Justice, which led two of the indictments.
On the eve of the hearing, Senate Judiciary chair Chuck Grassley published FBI documents showing that special counsel Jack Smith secretly gathered phone records on the contacts of eight Republican senators while investigating Mr Trump.
"That's what we've been talking about when we refer to the weaponisation of government … we are ending this weaponisation," Ms Bondi said when Mr Grassley raised the issue.
Ms Bondi also faced heat on her handling of the files relating to the federal investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
House Democrats, supported by a handful of Republicans, have been pressing for the release of the entire case file following Ms Bondi's announcement that the case was closed and that she had no new information to offer.
AFP
