Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, said during her confirmation hearing Wednesday that she would “follow the law” when it comes to special counsel.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware asked Bondi directly about her position against the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump, and she replied, “I will follow the law.”

The question of special counsel is one of the biggest questions of the Justice Department’s next era, and Bondi’s approach could signal a willingness to once again deploy prosecutors to politically charged grand jury investigations. (She said Wednesday she would not allow investigations that target individuals for political reasons.)

Some context: Attorney General Merrick Garland—and Donald Trump’s Justice Department during his first term—repeatedly appointed special prosecutors, including Smith, Robert Hur, David Weiss, John Durham and Robert Mueller, for politically sensitive investigations.

But Trump has attacked those appointments in his personal cases in court.

A Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have said they disagree with this appointment of special prosecutors, when the attorney general appoints a private attorney to lead a special prosecutor’s office not specifically authorized by the attorney general Congress approved approval. The Justice Department is still challenging in court the agency’s authority to use a special counsel’s offices in Florida.

Bondi’s response to Coons acknowledged the ongoing legal challenge before 9/11^Th Court of Appeals, where she signed an amicus brief opposing Smith’s appointment as special counsel.

But she also told Coons that at this point she would follow the position of the courts – which across the country, and particularly in Washington, D.C., have allowed special prosecutors to move forward in criminal cases after other judges found their appointment and their decision work, to be healthy.
Statewide law currently provides that the Attorney General may retain a private citizen as a special counsel.

“I will follow the law and consult with appropriate ethics officials,” Bondi said Wednesday about the attorney general’s authority to appoint a special counsel.