Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
This past week, Attorney General Pam Bondi testified in Congress about the Epstein Files and defended how the Department of Justice handled the release of the files. At the hearing, several victims of Epstein were seated behind Bondi as she defended the redactions in the files that were released to the public.
According to the BBC, Bondi started by referring to Jeffrey Epstein as a “monster” and apologized to the victims for the abuse that they suffered. Afterwards, lawmakers had a large number of complaints about the DOJ and how they released the files, as well as their mistakes in not redacting the identities of the victims, which was required by law. Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal went a step further and pointed out how, in some cases, there were naked photos of the victims and their identities were released even after decades of protection.
Jayapal continued by asking survivors who were not able to succeed in meeting with the DOJ to stand up and raise their hands. Every survivor who was present stood up with their hands raised. Bondi responded to this by saying “I’m not going to get into the gutter with this woman,” and labeled the question as “theatrics.” Bondi later blamed the oversight in protecting victim identities on working in the timeframe given by the legislation, telling her when the files needed to be released. Bondi did say that any names that were accidentally released were protected when brought to their attention.
According to NPR Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, gave a rather fiery opening statement directed at Bondi saying “You’re not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General, whether it’s Epstein’s human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, You’re siding with the perpetrators, and you’re ignoring the victims, That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course.”
Across the aisle, GOP lawmakers praised Bondi’s work as Attorney General with the committee chairman, Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio, calling the DOJ’s core mission “Upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys, and keeping Americans safe.” Bondi responded by praising her “tremendous progress” in ending the weaponization of the DOJ against Trump and conservatives. Raskin made sure to point out that Trump was using the DOJ and Bondi to target political opponents saying “You’ve turned the people’s Department of Justice into Trump’s instrument of revenge, Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time.”
Despite that, some Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats in criticizing Bondi over the Epstein files. Thomas Massie, a Republican lawmaker who has been involved in the criticism since the beginning, made it clear to Bondi that he wanted to know who failed to redact the names of the victims and wondered if they would be held accountable for it. He even referred to the Epstein files as “bigger than Watergate.”
The BBC writes that Bondi was also questioned about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his involvement with Epstein, since his name was in the files along with photos that were not used to prosecute him when they should have been. One of the few agreements between Democrats and Pam Bondi was that former Attorney General Merrick Garland “dropped the ball” on Mountbatten-Windsor.
Lawmakers asked about the shootings in Minneapolis and Democratic congressman Steve Cohen called the shootings “executions” that the DOJ did not investigate. Bondi responded by defending the actions of the federal government in Minnesota by saying the protestors and agents were incited by lawmakers to be “at war” with the government.
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