Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for attorney general, refused to explicitly say she would defy White House pressure — or admit that Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election — and instead offered a promise that “politics will not play a part” in her work at her confirmation hearing.

Ms. Bondi, polished and self-assured in the face of sharp questioning by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sought to project the image of an independent, crime-fighting prosecutor, while repeatedly expressing loyalty to Mr. Trump and her belief that he had been the victim of politically-motivated prosecution by the Biden administration.

From the start of the hearing, Ms. Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, who represented Mr. Trump during one of his impeachment cases, faced skepticism from Democrats about whether she would be able to stand up to any efforts by Mr. Trump to prosecute his political opponents. “I need to know that you will tell the president no,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, said in his opening statement.

Two patterns emerged in Ms. Bondi’s early exchanges with the committee: She claimed to have never heard widely broadcast episodes — including Mr. Trump’s infamous call with Georgia election officials about finding more votes after the 2020 election — and refused to answer fundamental yes-or-no questions about election denialism, prosecution of the news media and her stance on White House meddling in the department.

When Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a Democrat, asked Ms. Bondi if she would drop a case if the White House objected to it, Ms. Bondi pushed back against the premise of the question, saying she wouldn’t have accepted the nomination if she thought that could happen.

Ms. Bondi also defended Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel, and said she had not heard his public statement about having a 60-person list of investigatory targets. Ms. Bondi praised his legal experience and said, “there will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.”

She also refused to back down from her past vow in a television interview that “the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones.” Pressed about that statement, Ms. Bondi replied, “none of us are above the law.”

Ms. Bondi replaced Mr. Trump’s first pick to lead the Justice Department, Matt Gaetz, the former Republican representative of Florida. Mr. Gaetz withdrew from consideration after a furor over allegations of sexual misconduct, including with an underage girl, made it unlikely he would have the support to be confirmed.

Ms. Bondi, 59, is a far more conventional, qualified candidate than Mr. Gaetz. That virtually ensures support among Senate Republicans, and the possibility that she will pick up a Democrat or two.

Here’s what you need to know:

• A host of hearings: The questioning of Ms. Bondi comes on a packed day of confirmation hearings. Other Trump nominees up for hearings on Wednesday are Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state, John Ratcliffe for C.I.A. director, Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Chris Wright for energy secretary, and Sean Duffy for transportation secretary.
• Lobbying job: Ms. Bondi also faced questions about her role as a lobbyist from when she joined the firm Ballard Partners, which has close ties to Mr. Trump, in 2019. She registered as a lobbyist for Qatar and represented major corporations, including Amazon, Uber and General Motors, according to records.
• Bondi’s background: Ms. Bondi, a Democrat until 2000, emerged from a crowded Republican primary to win the Florida attorney general’s race in 2010. During her eight-year tenure, Ms. Bondi tried unsuccessfully to overturn and weaken the Affordable Care Act, opposed expanding legal protections for the L.G.B.T.Q. community and cultivated a national reputation by supporting anti-human-trafficking efforts. Read more ›