Epstein probe: Pam Bondi refuses to answer questions about Trump involvement, Democrats say | Today’s news
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, appearing for her closed-door interview Friday (local time) in connection with the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files case, declined to answer questions about President Donald Trump’s involvement in the release of the files.
Bondi defended the Trump administration’s actions to House lawmakers who were investigating the delayed process, which included the personal information of potential victims.
Read also | Pam Bondi says all requested Epstein files were released when she testified before the House
What happened at Bondi’s hearing?
The former attorney general, who arrived on Capitol Hill Friday morning for her closed-door interview, was defiant in her previous public testimony as lawmakers questioned her about the Epstein investigation. In her opening statement, Bondi followed suit, saying acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was deputy attorney general at the time, oversaw the process of releasing the Epstein case files, as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump last year.
According to her written statement, “The bottom line is: fairness and transparency in this matter were delivered at the behest of President Trump and his administration.”
In her opening statement, she told the committee that releasing the Epstein case files was an “enormously complicated and laborious process” and admitted that the department had made redaction mistakes. But she mostly defended the Justice Department’s work, saying it followed the law and demonstrated an “unprecedented commitment to transparency.”
Read also | Pam Bondi will not testify before the House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein
The taped interview with Bondi allowed lawmakers to gain more information about the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence for Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
What did Democratic lawmakers claim?
Democratic lawmakers said the former attorney general said she would not discuss Trump in the interview. She cited her ability to deflect questions because she voluntarily agreed to appear before the committee after consulting with a lawyer from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Democratic Rep. Dave Min of California said, “It’s a scam out there. They’re not answering any questions.”
Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia told the AP that he asked Bondi if the US president knew about Epstein’s crimes before they became public. Walkinshaw, reading from his notes on the exchange, told reporters that Bondi’s response was: “I’m not sure about the extent of his knowledge.”
Lawmakers question Bondi over Epstein probe
Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy financier who killed himself in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, but insisted she was innocent and argued she should never have been prosecuted. Last August, the Justice Department transferred Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
Lawmakers are now trying to find out what decisions prosecutors made regarding the investigation of Epstein’s associates, how the Justice Department handled the congressional mandate to release the files and whether Trump was part of the process.
Read also | The Epstein release of the files is under investigation after a redaction failure
Bondi’s role in the Epstein saga
The former attorney general was at the center of the entire political storm surrounding Epstein. It initially raised expectations for the full release of what are known as the Epstein files, only to later backtrack. This reversal prompted Congress to step in and pass a law requiring the release.
She later faced more backlash when the Justice Department delayed releasing the files and then included personal information and nude pictures of several potential victims. Bondi insisted at a congressional hearing that she was trying to follow the law.
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Epstein that spans multiple presidential administrations.
