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US ATTORNEY GENERAL Pam Bondi’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee over her justice department’s handling of the Epstein files didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know.
Instead, the five-hour hearing descended into chaos several times and saw numerous shouting matches, insults and even a Congresswoman walking out after a heated exchange.
Bondi avoided addressing questions about the way her department has handled the files while Democrats rounded on her over the release of information about survivors, including names and photographs, and the redaction of names of people who may have committed crimes.
In her opening statement, the 60-year-old said more than 500 attorneys and reviewers have spent thousands of hours pouring over documents related to Epstein to comply with the law and that any names of survivors that have been released “inadvertently” have been “immediately redacted”.
Bondi, who was Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019, said she has spent her “entire career fighting for victims” and will continue to do so.
“I am deeply sorry for what any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster,” she said, before encouraging any victims of Epstein to speak to the FBI.
However, she did not turn to face the survivors of Epstein who were present in the room – something that was picked up on by Democrat Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal when it was her turn to question Bondi.
“This is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologise for what your Department of Justice has done,” Jayapal said.
“Why didn’t she ask Merrick Garland this? Twice when he sat in my chair,” Bondi said, referring to her predecessor who was US attorney general under Joe Biden.
When pressed further, Bondi said: “I’m not going to get in the gutter with this woman. She’s doing theatrics.”
From this point on, it was clear that the rest of the hearing was going to be combative.
Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat who accused the DoJ of “running a massive Epstein cover-up”, told Bondi not to give meandering answers that would eat up the five minutes allotted to committee members. “I told you about that, attorney general, before you started,” he said.
“You don’t tell me anything, you washed-up loser lawyer. You’re not even a lawyer,” Bondi shouted.
Republican Thomas Massie, a Kentucky lawmaker who broke with his party to advance the legislation that forced the released of the Epstein files, also took Bondi to task for the release of victims’ personal information, telling her: “Literally the worst thing you could do to survivors, you did.”
She told Massie that he was only focused on the files because Trump is mentioned in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump-derangement syndrome”.
At several points during the hearing, Donald Trump’s attorney general championed the US president and accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from his administration’s successes.
“Have you apologised to President Trump? All of you who participated in those impeachment hearings against Donald Trump, you all should be apologising,” Bondi told Democrats who voted to impeach Trump twice during his first term in office.
In a hearing largely focused on the crimes of a convicted paedophile, Bondi bizarrely then pivoted to stock market gains. “The DOW is over 50,000 right now. The S&P at almost 7,000, and the NASDAQ smashing records… that’s what we should be talking about.”
When California’s Ted Lieu asked Bondi whether any underage girls were present for any parties that Trump attended with Epstein, Bondi called it “ridiculous”.
Lieu plays Bondi the infamous clip of Trump and Epstein partying together and asks her if there were underaged girls at any party the two attended together
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2026
"This is so ridiculous," Bondi says. "There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime"
"I believe you just… pic.twitter.com/Uv8BQTgMef
“There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime. Everyone knows that. This has been the most transparent presidency,” she said.
Lieu responded: “I’m going to put up another document from a witness who called the FBI’s information centre because I believe you just lied under oath.”
“Don’t you ever accuse me of a crime,” Bondi shouted at Lieu.
Lieu showed a redacted FBI document from the files purportedly from a witness who claimed to have met a girl who told him that she was raped by Trump and Epstein. “You need to interview this witness immediately,” he said.
Trump has always denied any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein and has never been charged with any related crimes.
Lieu also showed two photos of former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor that were released from the files, in which he is crouching over a woman whose face has been redacted. No context has been provided for the photos.
Asked why the DoJ had not prosecuted Mountbatten-Windsor, Bondi responded by saying: “I don’t believe you asked Merrick Garland these questions when he was attorney general and sat before you twice, did you? Never mentioned it.”
Lieu rebuffed this by saying that he had called for the Biden administration to look into the Epstein files, saying Garland and his predecessors “dropped the ball”.
Vermont’s Rebecca Balint questioned Bondi about the relationship between three senior Trump administration officials and Epstein, and was unimpressed when she avoided the question.
Upon telling her that “this is not a game”, Balint mistakenly referred to Bondi as “secretary”.
“I am attorney general,” Bondi corrected her. Without missing a beat, Balint responded: “My apologies, I couldn’t tell.”
BALINT: Was the president aware of Secretary Lutnick's ties to Epstein when he chose him to lead the Department of Commerce?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2026
BONDI: Chris Malen was a Border Patrol agent----
BALINT: So I'm going to conclude that he did know!
BONDI: Shame on you
BALINT: This is pathetic! This… pic.twitter.com/C1FC6LLIEw
Then came what was probably the most heated moment of the hearing.
After asking Balint if she had put similar questions about Epstein to Bill Clinton or Merrick Garland, Bondi then pointed to “this antisemitic culture right now” and stated that the Vermont lawmaker had voted against a resolution condemning the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ as antisemitic.
“Do you want to go there, attorney general? Are you serious? Talking about antisemitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust, really?” Balint shouted, before leaving the hearing.
BONDI: You didn't ask Merrick Garland anything about Epstein
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2026
BALINT: Weak sauce. Weak sauce.
BONDI: And with this antisemitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution--
BALINT: You want to go there?! Are you serious? Talking about antisemitism to a woman who lost her… pic.twitter.com/GTbgzgPef3
After the hearing, some Epstein survivors who had been present expressed their frustration to US news outlets.
“Bondi didn’t even turn around and acknowledge our existence,” Danielle Bensky told CNN.
Sharlene Rochard said she felt “humiliated” when Bondi did not turn to look at them.
“I started to cry at that moment because it just felt like this is the problem that we’ve been having for almost 30 years,” she said.
“This woman just made me feel so infuriated and frustrated that she doesn’t answer any questions. I’m actually just stunned.”
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