New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- Inside Hart 216, senators test Bondi on the Comey case, Epstein files, and whether the Justice Department can hold its line

Washington -The most consequential oversight hearing of the year opened Tuesday in Hart 216, with Attorney General Pam Bondi seated before the Senate Judiciary Committee and a line of questions that cut to the Justice Department's credibility. It is her first extended grilling on Capitol Hill since taking office, a debut that arrives after weeks of heightened scrutiny over prosecutorial choices and secrecy fights framed in early press previews of the session. What had been billed as routine oversight has acquired the weight of a test: whether a department can operate with independence when polit...