Attorney General Pam Bondi slammed a CNN legal analyst’s call to investigate the Signal leak – saying the network’s ratings are nosediving “because they’re putting people like that on TV.”
The Trump administration has been facing pushback after top security officials mistakenly added The Atlantic’s editor in chief to a group chat on Signal that reportedly included military plans.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday asked Bondi her thoughts on launching a probe into the viral leak.
“CNN, their Elie Honig, who is sometimes fair but, you know, mostly biased, said you have to open up a Signalgate investigation at DOJ,” Ingraham said.
Honig, CNN’s senior legal analyst, came down hard on Bondi for appearing “MIA” on the Signal crisis.
“By the way, when she was up for a confirmation as AG, remember, one of the concerns is would she be able to exercise independence. She told the Senate, ‘Absolutely, I will be completely independent,’” Honig said in a clip aired on Fox News.
“There’s no reasonable prosecutor who could look at this and say it doesn’t need to be investigated,” the former assistant US attorney added.
Bondi shrugged off the attack and took aim at the network’s analysts.
“There’s a reason why their ratings are plummeting, because they’re putting people like that on TV,” Bondi said.
“Chatter. We could care less what they say. We’re going to continue forward on all of these cases,” she continued.
Ingraham asked whether Bondi expected an inspector general investigation or congressional probe sometime in the near future.
“You are completely confident that this was a mistake and nothing more than that?” the Fox News host pressed.
Bondi replied: “We are and all of our intelligence officials who were on it are confident of that as well.”
President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns over the leak, which allegedly contained details of plans to bomb Yemen’s Houthis, as a “witch hunt.”
The administration has sent mixed messaging in its attempts to downplay the controversy.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that “Signal could be defective, to be honest with you.”
Earlier that day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had called Signal an “approved app” used by national security agencies “because it is the most secure and efficient way to communicate.”
