US Attorney General Pam Bondi spent four and a half hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she dodged questions and was pressed on topics ranging from the Jeffrey Epstein files and the indictment of former FBI head James Comey to the deployment of National Guard troops to US cities and strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boats.

Here's how it all went down:

• Democrats questioned Bondi over whether she's pursued Trump's perceived political opponents, including Comey - who is due to be arraigned in court on Wednesday
• Bondi denied the accusations and insisted she has kept the justice department free from political influence. She declined to answer what conversations she might have had with the White House regarding Comey after Trump called directly for his indictment

• Republicans accused the Biden administration of spying on GOP lawmakers and weaponising the government after FBI documents showed the special counsel investigating Trump and 2020 election interference obtained phone records of nine Republicans
• She deflected questions about Trump's connection to Epstein and asked why Democrats had not raised concern about the late convicted paedophile financier before she took office
• Bondi blamed Democrats for the current government shutdown, saying: "All of my agents are working without a pay check, because (Democrats) voted to shut down the government"
• Bondi was grilled on the legal justification for the deployment of National Guard troops to Democratically led cities. When asked if she consulted with the White House before their deployment, she declined to answer and touted that troops were "on the way" to Chicago
• Bondi also defended the deadly US military strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug cartel boats, which Democratic Senator Chris Coons said seemed to give the military the "authority to summarily kill people". She declined to discuss the legal rationale and said Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is a "narco-terrorist"

We are now closing our live coverage of Bondi's testimony to Congress - thank you for joining us.

After the congressional testimony of his boss, Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel said on social media that he fired agents who worked on the investigation into 2020 election interference, during which Republicans say the call records of Republican lawmakers were reviewed.

During the hearing, several Republican senators mentioned the investigation and called on Bondi to act on the revelation. On Monday, Senate Republicans released an FBI document listing nine Republican senators whose call records were reviewed by the Special Counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Donald Trump's alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and the 6 January 2021 riot.

"They tracked the communications of GOP Senators," Patel wrote on X. "They weaponised law enforcement against the American people. That era is over. We fired those who acted unethically, dismantled the corrupt CR-15 squad, and launched an investigation."

According Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, investigators in the Biden DoJ reviewed call logs between 4 January 2021 and 7 January 2021, though Grassley did not say that the content of the calls were accessed, as Senator Josh Hawley claimed in the hearing. The records included the time, duration and numbers called.

It is not immediately clear if the terminations are new. Several FBI agents who worked on cases involving the 6 January Capitol riot and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election have already been fired by the agency since the Trump administration took office.

Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Today's tense and at times combative hearing is likely not the last time this committee will hear from Bondi while she remains America's top prosecutor.

It's become more common for cabinet members to engage in these strained exchanges, especially with lawmakers from the opposition party. That seemed to have rubbed many committee Democrats the wrong way today.

"If you worked for me, you would have been fired because you were censured by Congress," Bondi told Democratic Senator Adam Schiff during this hearing. Schiff accused her of personal attacks on him, and his colleagues.

It's the job of these senators to oversee administration officials' work and to hold them to account, as part of the checks and balance system in the US. This administration's cabinet members seem ready for a fight.

"They may try to destroy our country, but they won't," Bondi said in her closing statements, without specifying who "they is".

Image source, Reuters

After four and a half hours, the questioning of Attorney General Pam Bondi is finally over.

At this point, the room has mostly emptied out as Bondi has finished taking all of the senators' questions and comments. The hearing will wrap up shortly. Stick with us as we bring you the final lines and analysis.

Image source, Getty Images

A few minutes ago, we also heard questions from Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican. He was telling Bondi that he is "having a real struggle" with Trump's deployment of the National Guard.

He says the National Guard deployment in Washington DC made sense to him because of the federal nature of the city, but he doesn't understand their deployment to other cities, including Portland and Chicago.

Tillis tells Bondi it's not really a "best practice" to send the National Guard to be an arm of local law enforcement and suggests it is just "masking" an underlying problem.

Bondi says they are there to keep Americans safe, citing Memphis, Tennessee, where she says local police are very happy to have the National Guard help.

Image source, Getty Images

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California is now speaking. He says the Department of Justice has engaged in a brazen political operation describing it Trump's "sword and shield" to go after Trump's adversaries.

Next, Schiff is the latest Democrat to ask Bondi about the Tom Homan investigation.

Bondi again reiterates that the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation didn't find wrongdoing, and the two begin to talk over each other.

As a congressman, Schiff helped lead the first impeachment of Trump and played a role in investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump has been highly critical of him as a result, and has implied he wants Schiff prosecuted.

We're now listening to Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat who has high personal stakes in today's hearing.

That's because President Trump specifically called on Pam Bondi to prosecute Schiff in a social media post in September. "What about Comey, Adam "Shifty" Schiff, Leticia??? They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done," Trump said.

During Trump's first impeachment trial in 2019, Schiff served as the lead prosecutor. Trump was acquitted by the US Senate.

Trump and Schiff have been political enemies ever since, frequently attacking each other on social media and on television.

Let's see what Schiff has to say to Bondi, the person who Trump has picked to investigate him.

Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, starts by saying he's noticed that every time his colleagues speak, Bondi has a prepared remark about their background.

For example, earlier in the hearing Bondi several times called out Senator Blumenthal for, she said, lying about his military service in order to get elected. Blumenthal, who served in the Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam War but not in Vietnam, had acknowledged in 2010 that he "misspoke".

Bondi came to the hearing today prepared with a folder of handwritten and typed notes, which she has frequently looked over.

Bondi has stonewalled many questions from Democrats during this hearing, which is divided clearly down partisan lines. Welch says he's waiting for his turn to be personally called out by Bondi.

Bondi and Senator Padilla are continuing to talk over each other, occasionally raising their voices.

Bondi is attacking Padilla for not having attended the whole hearing today, and as she raises her voice, Padilla asks the chairman to call for order.

Lawmakers sometimes come and go from congressional hearing rooms during long sessions.

Bondi then tells Padilla that he "sure didn't have order" when he "stormed" out of a press briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in June.

Three months ago, Padilla was forcibly removed during the press conference after he interrupted to try to ask Noem a question. The senator was pushed to the ground and marched down the hallway in handcuffs.

Image source, Getty Images

We've just had a heated exchange between Bondi and Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat.

Padilla asks Bondi about the firing of a Department of Justice attorney who had a disagreement with a top Border Patrol official.

Bondi does not reply to the question, instead telling Padilla, "I wish that you loved your state of California as much as you hate President Trump" - similar line to the one she said to Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

She accuses California of having high crime rates, and criticises him for the government shutdown that is affecting federal law enforcement agents.

The two talk over each other repeatedly, with Padilla trying multiple times to return to the question at hand as Bondi criticises him.

Joshua Cheetham
BBC Verify journalist

Earlier, Attorney General Pam Bondi criticised a number of apps which allow people to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and warn others about possible raids.

She said that the Justice Department has asked Apple and Google to remove an app called ICEBlock from their online stores.

The app – and two similar ones – were taken down last week, meaning people can no longer download them but existing users can still operate them.

ICEBlock had been downloaded more than one million times. Its developer told BBC Verify that Apple was "capitulating to an authoritarian regime".

In a statement, Apple said that “Based on information we've received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and similar apps from the App Store".

Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Reuters

It's lunchtime now, and there's no food or drink allowed in this hearing room.

As the questioning has dragged closer to four hours, much of the room has emptied out. It's not even half full now, and the press at the back have largely stopped typing.

We still have five senators to go, with 10 minutes each for their questions.

Kennedy the first Republican to bring up Epsteinpublished at 17:32 BST

17:32 BST

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

For most of this morning’s hearings, Democrats have been the ones peppering Pam Bondi with questions about Jeffrey Epstein.

That changed when Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana had his turn at the microphone.

Kennedy recounted recent comments by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that Epstein, the deceased financier and convicted sex trafficker, was "the greatest blackmailer ever".

The Louisiana senator suggested Lutnick, who owned a home near Epstein in Palm Beach Florida, should testify before Congress and speak to the FBI.

As she had during previous questioning, Bondi cited the Justice Department’s previous finding that there was no evidence of conspiracy or cover-up surrounding the Epstein investigation. She appeared ambivalent about the prospect of an FBI-Lutnick interview.

The questions still swirling around the Epstein investigation have been a rare source of bipartisan interest, with some Republicans joining Democrats to call for increased transparency. It took a while, but this Senate hearing finally gave some indication of that.

Senator Hirono asks the attorney general why so many career prosecutors from the Justice Department have left, and whether Pam Bondi fired them because of their probes into Trump, including the 6 January Capitol riot case.

Bondi says she won't talk about "personnel matters" with Hirono, adding that many employees "took the fork in the road and resigned".

Bondi throws in that the agency had to fire one employee after he threw a sandwich at a border agent in Washington.

Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat who represents the state of Hawaii, returns the conversation back to a controversial Truth Social post from President Trump calling for prosecutions of his political opponents, including James Comey.

That post came days before the Justice Department unveiled an indictment against the former FBI director.

Hirono asks Bondi if the "Pam" Trump referred to in the post meant her.

"I'm sure I was," Bondi replies.

Blumenthal also questions Bondi about corporate mergers approved by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division under her leadership.

Specifically, Bondi is asked whether she approved the settlement of a merger between tech company Hewlett Packard and its top competitor Juniper, which critics allege was the result of a backroom dealing that did nothing to address the risks of higher costs and decreased competition.

Bondi insists the merger is still pending, adding that she has full faith in Gail Slater who leads the antitrust division.

Blumenthal says the HP merger and others contradict claims made by President Trump that his administration would "stop big corporate mergers that ultimately benefit the owners of those corporations, rather than consumers or ordinary everyday Americans."

Blumenthal then asks Bondi if she had conversations with a certain lobbyist, a personal connection of hers, who was instrumental in getting a lawsuit over a recent American Express merger dropped.

Here's where things get especially heated.

"I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety," Bondi says sternly.

"I have abided by every ethic standard. Do not question my ability to be fair and impartial as attorney general."

Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Image source, Getty Images

A very tense exchange now between Bondi and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, with the pair sparring as Blumenthal questioned her over James Comey and other issues. Bondi at one point said she was not going to yell over the senator, saying "I'm not going to get in the gutter with you."

Blumenthal asked if Bondi had talked to anyone in the White House after Trump's post calling for Comey and others indictment. Bondi said she would not discuss any conversations she has with the White House.

Blumenthal also brought with him a large poster of a picture of Bondi and other cabinet members at a dinner with President Trump, which Blumenthal called "intimate." He asked if she discussed Comey with the president, who was seated not far from her.

"I love that picture. That's a great picture. And there were a lot of people there that night," said Bondi. She then reiterated that she would not discuss any conversations.

Image source, Getty Images

Are US strikes against ‘drug boats’ legal?published at 16:53 BST

16:53 BST

By Joshua Cheetham

Pam Bondi was asked earlier about the legality of US strikes against vessels it says were carrying drugs. She said she would not get into the legal advice the administration had received on this matter.

The US government has destroyed at least four of such vessels in international waters, killing a number of people on board. It has released footage of the strikes but few details, including its legal justification.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries must not interfere with vessels operating in international waters. There are limited exceptions, such as a "hot pursuit" where a vessel is chased from a country's waters into international waters.

The US is not a signatory to the convention, but the US military's legal advisors have previously said that the US should "act in a manner consistent with its provisions"., external

BBC Verify spoke to a number of legal experts about the strikes – some of whom believe they may have violated international human rights and maritime law.

Read more of our coverage here.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Earlier in this hearing, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said that, unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden didn’t direct his Justice Department to target political opponents while he was president.

Missouri Republican Josh Hawley had to wait nearly two hours for his chance to talk, but when he did his anger was palpable. He cited a 2022 New York Times article that reported that, out of public view, Biden viewed Trump as a threat to democracy who should be prosecuted by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.

“While the president has never communicated his frustration directly to Mr Garland,” the article noted, “he has said privately that he wanted Mr Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor.”

Hawley also pointed to the recent revelation that Jack Smith, who was appointed by Garland to investigate Trump’s involvement in the 6 January, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, accessed the phone records of Hawley and seven other US senators as part of his inquiry.

“Gee, it sure looks like targeting political opponents to me,” he said.