Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi first Trump picks to face Senate confirmation hearings

Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth and Attorney General pick Pam Bondi will be the first two cabinet nominees of President-elect Donald Trump to sit for confirmation hearings by Senate committees next week.Lawmakers will grill the 44-year-old Hegseth, who is expected to still have the requisite votes for confirmation, and Bondi, 59, before the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees, respectively, starting Jan.14.“I’m enthused with her work as Attorney General of Florida and what she’s done as a prosecutor,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told Fox Business Network Friday of Bondi.

“I think we’re going to find the Justice Department prosecuting and not being used as a political weapon against political enemies.“There’s one thing that can speed up her nomination, and that is if the transition team that we’re working with of the new Trump administration would get the background investigations and the other paper — particularly the ethics reports that we ought to have,” Grassley added.“We don’t have any of that paper yet.I want to get it so I can schedule her hearing for the 14th.”Hegseth’s hearing will also be held that day, an Armed Services Committee rep confirmed.Republicans can only lose four votes from their own conference before a nomination is in peril, given their 53-47 majority in the Senate.Hegseth is likely to be the toughest of the Trump picks to be confirmed, though sources previously told The Post that “zero” Republicans are knives out for the former Fox News personality in private — despite several expressing reservations publicly.Trump, 78, has stood by Hegseth despite concerns about his past alleged personal and professional misconduct — including his tenure at two veterans advocacy groups where he was accused of mismanaging finances and binge drinking on the job.Several former senior employees — including a trustee of one of the groups, Concerned Veterans for America — categorical...