WATCH: Durbin presses Bondi for rationale behind troop deployment to Illinois

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday whether the White House consulted with her before National Guard troops were deployed to various cities in the country.

Bondi said she wouldn’t discuss any internal conversations with the White House.

Durbin again pressed for more details, but Bondi refused.

“Why do you want to keep this secret? The American people don't know the rationale behind the deployment of National Guard troops in my state,” the Illinois senator said, adding that the White House confirmed that it’s transferring hundreds of Texas National Guard troops to the state. The state of Illinois and city of Chicago have sued to halt the deployment, though a judge declined to block the move.

Durbin wanted to know what motivated the decision to deploy troops to Illinois, where agents have stepped up deportation efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.

Bondi pushed back, saying Democrats voted to shut down the government and that law enforcement officers weren’t getting paid as the senator sits before her.

“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump, and currently the National Guard are on the way to Chicago,” she said. “If you're not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.”

Citing his decades on the committee, Durbin said he was asking a legitimate question and that it was part of his responsibility as ranking member on the Senate committee.

“She refuses to answer as to whether she had any conversation with the White House about deploying national troops to my state,” he said. “That's an indication, I'm afraid, where we are politically in this place.”

The oversight hearing, focused on the Department of Justice, comes on the heels of a number of controversial decisions from the agency. That includes the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey that came days after President Donald Trump directly called on Bondi in a social media post to prosecute Comey and other perceived political foes.

Ahead of Bondi’s testimony, more than 280 former DOJ employees wrote a letter urging Congress for more oversight due to the “degradation” of oaths to the Constitution and to upholding the law under the Trump administration.

“Members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle must provide a meaningful check on the abuses we’re witnessing,” the letter read.

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