Bondi defends Trump administration’s release of Epstein case files
Former attorney general Pam Bondi stood behind the Trump administration’s release of the case files on Jeffrey Epstein as she testified before House politicians scrutinising a process that was delayed and included personal information of potential victims.
Ms Bondi, who arrived on Friday morning on Capitol Hill for her closed-door interview, was defiant in previous public testimony when she was confronted about the Epstein investigation.
In her opening statement, she kept to the same tact.
“The bottom line is: justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President Trump and his administration,” she said, according to a written copy of her opening statement.
The transcribed Bondi interview gave politicians a chance to dig for information on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence of Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I think she absolutely could clear up many missing pieces if she wanted to,” said Representative Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
“Now it’s a question of whether or not she is willing to be transparent.”
Epstein killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein but has insisted she is innocent, arguing she never should have been prosecuted.
The Justice Department moved Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas last August.
Politicians are trying to find out what decisions prosecutors have made about investigating Epstein associates, how the Justice Department handled the congressional mandate to release the Epstein case files and whether President Trump was involved in the process.
Ms Bondi told politicians in her opening statement that then-deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general, had overseen the process to release the Epstein case files as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by Mr Trump last year.
She called it “an enormously complicated and labour-intensive process” and conceded that the department had made redaction errors.
But she mostly defended the Justice Department’s work, saying that it had complied with the law and demonstrated “an unprecedented commitment to transparency”.
Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also gathered outside the Capitol office where the interview was taking place. They tried to make their presence known to Ms Bondi as she entered the room, but several said they were shoved aside by police officers.
The survivors also implored politicians to hold Ms Bondi accountable for the handling of the Epstein case files’ release, which included the personal information of potential victims.
They confronted the committee chair, Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, and he told them that he would press for the complete release of case files mandated by law.
“We want justice for the survivors, we do,” Mr Comer added.
Ms Bondi, who revealed this week that she is being treated for thyroid cancer, has stayed within the Republican president’s orbit even after being ousted from her job in early April.
Mr Trump appointed Ms Bondi to a White House panel on artificial intelligence this week, and she will be accompanied on Friday by Justice Department officials, including Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the department’s Civil Rights Division, acting as her counsel.
Democrats say that arrangement is a conflict of interest.
Ms Bondi has been central to the political firestorm over Epstein, initially raising expectations for the full release of what is known as the Epstein files, only to later backtrack.
That reversal prompted Congress to step in and pass a law requiring the release.
Ms Bondi faced even more backlash when the Justice Department’s release of the files was delayed and then included personal information and nude photos of several potential victims.
She has insisted in congressional hearings that she was trying to follow the law.
The House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Epstein that spans multiple presidential administrations.
Ms Bondi was subpoenaed by the committee in March in a bipartisan vote, but she tried to head off that demand by holding a closed-door meeting with lawmakers that month.
The manoeuvre only added to the enmity between Ms Bondi and Democrats on the committee.
Ms Bondi’s departure from the Justice Department also raised doubts about the enforcement of the congressional subpoena. After the committee’s Democrats manoeuvred to press for a civil contempt of Congress resolution against Ms Bondi, she agreed to sit for a transcribed interview rather than a sworn deposition.
Democrats on the Oversight panel have criticised that arrangement, saying that it allows Ms Bondi to decline to answer questions. They also objected to Mr Comer’s decision not to video the interview.
“We continue to be incredibly disappointed of the decision to not have this interview videotaped and then released to the American public,” said Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel.
Mr Comer has said he is allowing Ms Bondi to sit for a transcribed interview rather than a deposition as an incentive to cooperate.
Previously, he had enforced a subpoena on former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton after they resisted the demand.
Both of their depositions were video-recorded.
Still, Mr Comer said Ms Bondi could face prosecution if she lies to Congress. He said the committee would also release a transcript of the interview.
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