Bondi largely deferred to Trump and condemned the violence when prompted during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee if those convicted of assaulting police officers in the 2021 attack should be pardoned.

“The pardons, of course, fall under the president,” she responded to the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). “But if asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis, just as I did my entire career as a prosecutor.”

Durbin, clearly dissatisfied with the answer, pressed further for a “yes” or “no” response.

“I have not seen any of those files. Of course, if confirmed and if asked to advise the president, I will look at each and every file,” Bondi continued. “But let me be very clear in speaking to you: I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country.”

Trump has repeatedly vowed to dish out pardons among the more than 1,500 defendants charged or convicted for acts related to the riot, plans that Senate Republicans are reluctant to embrace.  

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who is working hand in glove with Trump to advance the incoming president’s Cabinet nominees such as Bondi, has expressed a similar “case-by-case” sentiment for pardons.

“The pardon authority is one that the president exercises, and we’ve seen President Biden obviously use it more broadly than any president in history, so it’s going to be a call the president has to make,” Thune said this month. “My assumption is that they’ll look at these on a case-by-case basis.”

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and close ally to Trump who served on his impeachment defense team, is likely to be confirmed along mostly party lines to head the Department of Justice as the most powerful law enforcement official in the country. Democrats are opposed over concerns about her loyalty to Trump.

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“At issue, I believe, in this nomination hearing is not your competency nor your experience. At issue is your ability to say ‘no,’” Durbin said. “The attorney general has to be prepared to put the Constitution first and even tell the president of the United States, ‘You’re wrong.’”

Trump initially chose fellow Floridian Matt Gaetz for attorney general, but the former Republican congressman dropped out of consideration due to a lack of support in the Senate over alleged ethics violations.