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US Attorney Pam Bondi launched an impassioned defense Donald Trump on Wednesday as she tried to turn the page from relentless criticism of the Justice Department’s handling of the matter Jeffrey Epstein files, repeatedly yelling at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she cast herself as the Republican president’s chief protector.
Beset by questions about Epstein and allegations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi launched aggressively in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic counterparts, praised Trump for his stock market performance and openly sided with a president she described as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.
“You’re sitting here attacking the president, and I’m not going to let that happen,” Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “I won’t stand for it.”
With Epstein’s victims seated behind her in the hearing room, Bondi staunchly defended the department’s handling of files involving the well-connected financier, an issue that has dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Trump’s successes, even though it was Republicans who started the firestorm over the records, and Bondi herself fanned the flames by handing out binders to conservative influencers on The white house last year.
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The hearing quickly turned into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly insulting Democrats while insisting she “won’t mess with them.” In one particularly fiery exchange, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to answer his questions, prompting the attorney general to call the top Democrat on the committee “a washed-up loser lawyer — he’s not even a lawyer.”
Aiming to help Bondi amid a flurry of Democratic criticism, Republicans have tried to focus on more pressing law enforcement issues like violent crime and illegal immigration. immigration. Bondi, for her part, repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding instead with attacks seemingly ripped from the headlines as she tried to portray them as disinterested in the violence in her districts. Democrats became outraged as Bondi repeatedly refused to answer directly.
“This is pathetic. This is pathetic,” said Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi about the various Trump administration officials who were found to have had ties to Epstein. “I’m not asking a trick question here. The American people have a right to know the answers to this.”
Bondi has struggled to contain the backlash over the Epstein files since she shared the files with a group of social media influencers in February 2025. The files contained no new revelations about Epstein, prompting even more calls from the Trump base to release the files.
In her opening remarks, Bondi told victims of Epstein to come forward to the police with any information about their abuse and said she was “deeply sorry” for what they had suffered. She told survivors that “any allegation of a criminal offense will be taken seriously and investigated.”
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But she refused when Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington pressed her to turn around and face Epstein’s victims in the audience and talk about what Trump’s Justice Department had “put them through.” She accused the Democrat of “theatricality”.
Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill came a year into her tumultuous tenure, heightening concerns that the Justice Department is using its law enforcement powers to target the president’s political enemies. Just a day earlier, the department sought to indict Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But in an extraordinary rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington declined to return an indictment.
Brushing aside criticism that the Justice Department has become politicized under her watch, Bondi praised the department’s work to reduce violent crime and said she was determined to return the department to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponry.”
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for reversing actions under the president Joe BidenA Justice Department that Republicans say has unfairly targeted conservatives — including Trump, who was charged in two federal criminal cases that were dismissed after his 2024 election victory.
“What a difference one year makes,” Jordan he said. “Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ returned to its core tasks – maintenance rule of lawhunting down bad guys and keeping Americans safe.”
Democrats, meanwhile, blasted Bondi for making random redactions in Epstein’s files that exposed intimate details about victims and included nude photos. The review by The Associated Press and other news organizations found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or non-existent newsrooms that exposed sensitive private information.
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“You side with the perpetrators and ignore the victims,” Raskin told Bondi in his opening statement. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to reverse course. Lead a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Justice Department.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky who broke with his party to advance legislation to force the release of Epstein’s files, also accused Bondi of releasing the victims’ personal information, telling her, “Literally the worst thing you could have done to the survivors is you.”
Bondi told Massie he was only focused on the files because they mentioned Trump, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Department officials said they did their best to protect survivors, but mistakes were inevitable given the amount of material and the speed with which the department had to release it. Bondi told lawmakers that the Justice Department removed the files when it learned they included information about victims, and said staff tried to do “the best they could within the time frame allotted by law” requiring the files to be released.
After raising conservatives’ expectations last year with promises of transparency, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded its review and determined that Epstein’s “client list” did not exist and that there was no reason to release additional files. That sparked outrage that prompted Congress to pass legislation requiring the Justice Department to release the files.
The admission that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients who trafficked minors was a public rejection of the theory that the Trump administration helped promote when Bondi proposed in Fox News interview last year that it was sitting on her examination table. Bondi later said she meant all of Epstein’s files, not a specific list of clients.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
