A lot of political figures are understandably nervous about facing a U.S. Senate committee probe.

Not Pam Bondi.

In more than four hours of testimony Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she responded to the most polite questions with an air of contempt worthy of her boss, President Donald Trump, who tends to react to the idea of accountability as if it were a personal insult, especially when it is requested by Democrats.

Her rude, taunting demeanor in the halls of Congress is not without precedent. Luminaries of the current administration such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FBI Director Kash Patel have all turned in pugnacious performances before committee-room cameras.

Democratic committee members, starting with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, were eager to question Bondi about the politicization of the Justice Department, including efforts to shield Trump and his allies and naked efforts to prosecute those who have ever crossed Trump, such as former FBI Director James Comey.

Democrats, and a few Republicans, were also eager to know more about Bondi’s decision not to release any more files relating to convicted sex offender and former Trump associate Jeffrey Epstein.

These are important questions, and the U.S. attorney general is in a key position to provide some answers. However, in this, her first oversight hearing as attorney general, Bondi made it clear that she owed the Senate neither answers nor illumination of any sort. All they would get........

© Chicago Tribune