WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi stood behind the Trump administration's release of the case files on Jeffrey Epstein as she testified Friday before House lawmakers scrutinizing a process that was delayed and included personal information of potential victims.
Bondi, who arrived Friday morning on Capitol Hill for her closed-door interview, was defiant in previous public testimony when she was confronted by lawmakers about the Epstein investigation. In her opening statement, she kept to the same tact.
“The bottom line is: justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President Trump and his administration,” she said, according to a written copy of her opening statement.
The transcribed Bondi interview gave lawmakers a chance to dig for information on the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence of Epstein's former girlfriend and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I think she absolutely could clear up many missing pieces if she wanted to,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. “Now it’s a question of whether or not she is willing to be transparent.”
Epstein killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein but has insisted she’s innocent, arguing she never should have been prosecuted. The Justice Department moved Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas last August.
Lawmakers are trying to find out what decisions prosecutors have made about investigating Epstein associates, how the Justice Department handled the congressional mandate to release the Epstein case files and whether President Donald Trump was involved in the process.
Several survivors of Epstein's abuse also gathered outside the Capitol office where the interview was taking place. They tried to make their presence known to Bondi as she entered the room, but several said they were shoved aside by police officers.
The survivors also implored lawmakers to hold Bondi accountable for the handling of the Epstein case files' release, which included the personal information of potential victims.
They confronted the committee chair, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, and he told them that he would press for the complete release of case files mandated by law.
Source: WPLG
