Bondi, Democrats duke it out in House hearing over Epstein files

WASHINGTON (CN) — A much-anticipated House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi devolved into a partisan slugfest Wednesday, as she forcefully rejected Democrats looking to pick apart the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.

But neither the Trump administration’s top law enforcement official nor House Democrats found much common ground during the hourslong hearing — which yielded several viral moments but few substantive answers.

The Justice Department and the attorney general have in recent weeks found themselves under renewed scrutiny after the agency published roughly 3 million documents from its trove of files related to the federal investigation into the late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The department faced criticism for its delay in producing the so-called Epstein files — it missed a congressional deadline to publish those documents by more than a month.

And the agency took heat for reports that it initially failed to redact photos and names of victims while improperly blocking out the identities of powerful figures who interacted with Epstein.

Bondi’s handling of the Epstein documents formed the backbone of Democrats’ cross-examination Wednesday, as they accused the attorney general of slighting Epstein’s victims while giving preferential treatment to his co-conspirators and others implicated in his crimes.

“As attorney general, you sided with perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims,” Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin told her. “That will be your legacy, unless you act quickly to change course.”

But while Democrats demanded to know why the Justice Department had made missteps in its redaction of Epstein documents or whether it was probing anyone else in connection with the late financier’s crimes, Bondi balked at lawmakers’ lines of questioning and accused them of “theatrics.”

“This is a circus,” she fumed at one point. “I’m not going to get in the gutter with these people.”

Asked by California Representative Ted Lieu about President Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein and whether he had attended parties where underage girls were present, Bondi scoffed that his question was “ridiculous.”

“They are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done,” she said. “There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime.”

Bondi repeatedly held that Democrats were using the Epstein files as a political wedge to distract from the Trump administration’s accomplishments, pointing to what she said were successful efforts to bring crime rates down and stimulate the economy.

“The Dow has shattered 50,000 for the first time,” she said. “National median rents have fallen to a four-year low, thanks to Donald Trump. That’s why they want to focus on Epstein and our most transparent administration in the nation’s history.”

Throughout Wednesday’s hearing, Bondi adopted a combative posture with Judiciary Committee Democrats, frequently dodging questions about the Justice Department’s handling of Epstein documents. On several occasions, she and Democrats descended into screaming matches that brought proceedings to a screeching halt.

“You don’t tell me anything, you washed up lawyer,” the attorney general seethed at Raskin during one such interaction.

Bondi repeatedly insulted Democratic lawmakers and tied them to crime rates in their districts, referring to a binder full of notes which appeared to contain opposition research on committee members — which Florida Representative Jared Moskowitz referred to as a “burn book.”

Democrats’ questions for the attorney general only strayed away from the Epstein issue on a couple of occasions.

Georgia Representative Lucy McBath asked Bondi whether she would denounce members of the Trump administration who characterized two U.S. citizens shot and killed by federal agents last month as “domestic terrorists.”

Bondi did not do so, telling the lawmaker instead that the Justice Department was “looking at everything to shed light” on what happened. “It is an ongoing and active investigation in both of those cases, and I assure you they will be investigated,” the attorney general said.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good, 37, in the front seat of her car as she attempted to leave the site of an enforcement operation in Minneapolis last month. Just weeks later, Border Patrol agents in the same city killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Though both shootings prompted bipartisan outrage, Trump administration officials initially referred to the victims as agitators intent on harming federal law enforcement.

The attorney general, meanwhile, also did not directly answer questions from Pennsylvania Representative Mary Gay Scanlon about her connection to a White House memo directing counterterrorism officials to compile a list of domestic terror groups.

Bondi would not commit to Scanlon that the Justice Department would provide Congress with such a list once it was complete — a response that appeared to alarm the Pennsylvania Democrat.

“We understand that your current position is that you have a secret list of groups who you are accusing of domestic terrorism, but you won’t share it with Congress,” said Scanlon.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Republicans offered a markedly less critical cross-examination, and most GOP members on the Judiciary Committee granted Bondi time to skewer Democratic lawmakers from her “burn book.” But the attorney general did spar with Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, the lead Republican behind legislation passed last year directing the Justice Department to publish the Epstein files.

Massie demanded the attorney general explain who at her agency was responsible for missing redactions on several individuals who have been named as co-conspirators of Epstein, including billionaire Les Wexner.

But Bondi again rejected the line of questioning, claiming the Justice Department had already fixed that error. “We corrected that within 40 minutes,” she told Massie. “Everyone is pretending like we tried to cover up Wexner’s name … this is a political show.”

And the attorney general saved some harsh words for Massie — a frequent target of the president — calling him a “failed politician” and a “hypocrite” and accusing the Kentucky lawmaker of having “Trump derangement syndrome.”

Despite the partisan sparring at Wednesday’s hearing, Massie told reporters during a break that he felt that lawmakers were “making progress” on the Epstein issue.

“We got them to admit that they overredacted two documents this week, and that they have co-conspirators,” said the Republican congressman, who added that he thought Bondi’s defense during her testimony amounted to “incompetence.”

“I keep reminding folks at DOJ that the next attorney general can bring charges against them for breaking the law. I think that’s what compelled them to produce 3 million documents,” Massie said.

It’s been several months since Bondi appeared before lawmakers to discuss her leadership of the Justice Department. The attorney general in October testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she was similarly dismissive of Senate Democrats’ questions about the Epstein files and National Guard deployments to U.S. cities.

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