It was earlier this week when the public first learned about Donald Trump’s plan to accept a superluxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar to be used as a temporary Air Force One. The president spent the days that followed trying to defend the outrageous arrangement, with limited effect.

The result is a bizarre controversy that has divided congressional Republicans and conservative leaders, while raising a seemingly endless list of ethical and legal concerns.

But while this burgeoning fiasco adds to the list of Trump scandals, the president isn’t the only one facing difficult questions.

According to a report from ABC News, which was the first to break this story, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her Justice Department team determined that accepting the plane would be legally permissible so long as the Qatari government gifts it to the Defense Department and the jet is later turned over to the Trump Library Foundation.

This was dubious guidance in its own right, but there was a related problem hanging overhead: Bondi used to work as a registered lobbyist for foreign clients, including the government of Qatar — the same government that’s apparently prepared to reward Trump with a jet.

Now, a key Senate Democratic leader is asking all the right questions. NBC News reported:

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, sent a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking how she came to a conclusion that the Qatari gift of a $400 million jet to Trump would be ‘legally permissible’ and pressing her to provide the committee with information about whether the Justice Department determined there were no potential conflicts of interest. In the letter, provided first to NBC News, Durbin asks Bondi if she recused herself from decision-making related to the matter because Bondi previously worked as a lobbyist for Qatar.

“There are serious questions about whether you should have recused yourself from this matter,” Durbin wrote in the letter, noting that Bondi “did not list the State of Qatar as a conflict of interest on your Senate Judiciary Questionnaire, despite serving as a lobbyist for this foreign government prior to your confirmation as Attorney General.”

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The Illinois Democrat, who’s retiring next year, asked Bondi to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with:

• the memo the attorney general prepared that concluded that the acceptance of the Qatari gift would be “legally permissible”;
• and “the names and titles of the Department ethics officials with whom you consulted on your potential conflict of interest in this matter and any records or materials related to this consultation.”

Durbin asked that Bondi comply with his request by May 28.

For those interested in accountability and legal ethics, the good news is that Durbin is pressing the attorney general on an important point, and the facts appear to be on the senator’s side. The bad news is that Durbin’s correspondence is a request, not a subpoena, and given that the Illinois Democrat is in the minority, he has no way to compel Bondi to cooperate with this line of inquiry.

Indeed, it’s likely that the attorney general will ignore the senator’s letter — and there won’t be a whole lot he can do about it without the support of his Republican colleagues, which will almost certainly never materialize.