Pam Bondi didn’t want to talk about the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The attorney general faced heavy scrutiny in a congressional hearing Wednesday as Democratic lawmakers asked a barrage of questions about the Justice Department’s multiple document releases related to the convicted sex offender and whether additional investigations would follow.
She left many unanswered. Instead, she lobbed personal attacks at Democrats, saying she wouldn’t “get in the gutter” with them. Bondi condemned Epstein’s criminal activity, but focused most of her attention on accusing prior administrations of failing to act on the case. She repeatedly accused Democrats of “theatrics,” while shouting herself.
“They yell, they cut me off,” she said of the Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee. “They want to ask a question and don’t want answers because they want to distract from all the great things” that President Donald Trump and his administration have done.
Republicans largely praised Bondi and blamed previous administrations, including her predecessor, Merrick Garland, for not doing more. They also turned their attention to immigrant crime, the Dow Jones, and at one point, flavored vapes manufactured in China.
Meanwhile, a group of Epstein survivors in the hearing room watched as Bondi spent five-plus hours deflecting questions over her role in the case.
Here are three major takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing.
Bondi dodged invitations to directly apologize to Epstein survivors for the administration’s handling of the case
Watch the clip in the player above.
Several survivors released a letter ahead of Bondi’s testimony criticizing the DOJ’s latest Epstein files release for its haphazard redactions and disclosures, calling it “reckless and dangerous.”
“This places survivors in jeopardy and sends a chilling message to others and confirms many’s worst fears: reporting abuse will not protect you, it will only expose you,” the letter read.
In her opening remarks, Bondi addressed the survivors, saying she was “deeply sorry for what any victim” has been through, “especially as a result of that monster.”
Twice later in the hearing, Democrats asked the attorney general to apologize for how the DOJ has handled the case.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., asked Bondi if she’d turn to the survivors behind her and apologize for putting them through an “absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information.”
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., asked Bondi if she would apologize for “outing” them in the DOJ’s document releases.
“How many lives have been derailed because your department was either sloppy and incompetent or wilfully trying to intimidate and punish these ladies coming forward?”
Both times, Bondi’s exchanges with the Democratic lawmakers devolved into crosstalk, prompting Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the committee chair, to bang his gavel. Bondi did not offer an apology.
Bondi received a rare Republican rebuke
Watch the clip in the player above.
While Democrats hammered Bondi on the Epstein case, Republicans often steered away — except for Rep. Thomas Massie, who’s a vocal Trump critic.
The Kentucky Republican was a co-sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the first GOP lawmaker to attempt to hold Bondi accountable during the hearing for the DOJ’s handling of the document drops.
While the agency has released millions of pages of Epstein-related documents, photographs and messages, it missed its deadline by more than a month. Massie reiterated this, along with noting instances where the names of victims were not shielded in the releases. To him, that amounted to a “massive failure” to comply with the act that President Donald Trump signed into law in November. Meanwhile, the names of co-conspirators, such as businessman Leslie Wexner, have been blacked out in the documents.
“Who’s responsible?” Massie asked. “Are you able to track who in the organization made this massive failure and released the victims’ names?”
The attorney general said the congressman has “Trump derangement syndrome,” a label she assigned to more than one lawmaker during the hearing, and called him a “hypocrite.”
In a much less heated moment, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reasked why survivors’ names were not properly redacted. Bondi said the DOJ “did the best we could,” given the “tight” time frame.
Roy also followed up with Bondi on a question that Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., attempted to ask: Will any anyone else be indicted?
Bondi said there were pending investigations and didn’t offer any more details.
More scrutiny for Trump officials’ ties to Epstein
Watch the clip in the player above.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Axios in an interview Tuesday that Trump’s name is “all over the place” in the unredacted Epstein files.
There’s no direct evidence that Trump committed a crime, but his inclusion in the files has raised more questions about his awareness of and presence around Epstein’s activities.
Beyond Trump, who has maintained he was not involved in Epstein’s criminal activity, there are other high-level administration officials whose names or correspondence have appeared in caches that have been made public already. That includes Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who downplayed his relationship to Epstein in a separate hearing with senators Tuesday.
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who said she’s viewed some of the unredacted files, asked Bondi if the DOJ has investigated Epstein’s ties between Lutnick and other senior Trump officials — Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, specifically — whose names are in the documents.
Bondi said Lutnick “has addressed those ties himself.”
Bondi said she was “stunned” that the congresswoman wanted to talk about Epstein and not a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was shot and killed in 2025.
The exchange soon fell apart.
“I am not asking trick questions here,” an exasperated Balint said. “The American people have a right to know the answers to this. These are senior officials in the Trump administration.”
“This is not a game, secretary,” Balint said.
“I am attorney general,” Bondi corrected the congresswoman.
“My apologies, I couldn’t tell,” Balint shot back.
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