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Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified Friday before House lawmakers that she is “proud” of the Department of Justice’s record and “commitment to transparency” under her tenure.
“The bottom line is: justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President Trump and his administration,” Bondi said in a prepared opening statement obtained by NPR.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bondi for a closed-door transcribed interview in March to discuss her role in overseeing the Department of Justice’s release of millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“There were redaction errors,” Bondi said of the released Epstein files. “But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency.”
Bondi said handling the release of the Epstein files was an “enormously complicated and labor-intensive process.” She also said that she “did not lead every aspect” of the review herself. Instead, she said, she “delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.” Blanche is the current acting attorney general.
“Our diligent and good faith effort to collect materials ensured that all potentially responsive documents that could be reasonably located would see the light of day,” Bondi said.
“I have spent my entire career fighting for victims and I will continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster,” she continued.
Survivors and Democrats have long criticized Bondi’s handling and release of the Epstein files. They say Bondi made contradictory statements about what was in the documents, exposed survivors’ names and private information, and removed key files related to President Trump. Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Bondi’s opening statement on Friday followed a pattern set in her previous testimony, in which she defended the department’s work and how it handled the release of the Epstein files. She has argued that some missteps happened because government lawyers faced a tight timeline imposed by Congress to review millions of pages of material.
On the campaign trail before his second term, Trump promised to release significant information on Epstein, but some of the president’s supporters as well as critics say Bondi did not deliver on that promise.
“We haven’t seen the full release of the files, so that’s already a violation of the law,” said Dani Bensky, referencing the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Bensky, who says Epstein sexually abused her as a young ballerina, says Bondi’s release of the files without proper redactions of victims’ identities “sends such a chilling effect to the rest of the survivor community.”
Calls for justice for survivors and the release of more files
On Friday morning, a group of survivors, including Bensky, held up documents and pleaded for transparency outside the doors of the closed-door interview.
Speaking before the proceedings, Committee Chair James Comer said Bondi would be the 13th interview the committee has conducted regarding Epstein and that six more are planned.
“The government has failed the survivors,” Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, told reporters. “We’re taking this investigation seriously.”
He also promised to ask questions to obtain “justice for the survivors.”
“What we’re trying to do is just connect all the dots, and see if there is a way to hold people accountable,” Comer said. “And try to understand how the government failed.”
California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said he was “incredibly disappointed” that the interview would not be videotaped or given under oath.
“We obviously have a lot of questions as it relates to why only 50% of the files have been released, why many of the survivors … were literally put in danger by the way the files were released – that private information should never have been released,” Garcia said to reporters Friday. “And of course, why this continues to be some type of cover up.”
Beyond the Epstein files, Bondi’s time in office had been marked by criticism from some legal experts and others who say she oversaw what they term the weaponizing of the department to advance Trump’s agenda.
In April, Bondi was ousted from the DOJ’s top spot, and in a social media post Trump called her “a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend.” In her own social media post, Bondi called her time as attorney general “the honor of a lifetime.”
In February, before the ouster, Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a contentious hearing that she was “deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim, has been through, especially as a result of that monster.” She pushed back on lawmakers’ criticism of her handling of the files and defended her work.
“To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress’ law,” Bondi said at the hearing. “We’ve released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public while doing our very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation to protect victims.”
Push for open, videotaped interview
Friday’s interview has drawn additional scrutiny in recent weeks because it will be held behind closed doors and transcribed, rather than videotaped under oath.
“We’re demanding that it be both videotaped under oath and released to the public,” California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, told NPR.
The House Oversight Committee has questioned a number of high-profile individuals about Epstein, including his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former lawyer and accountant, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. The committee videotaped and released a recording of the Clintons’ deposition to the public. Other transcriptions, like Lutnick’s, were released days after the testimony. Bondi’s transcription will be released in a similar manner, according to the committee.
“It should be transcribed, it should be filmed, and it should be publicly released as quickly as possible,” said Bensky. She says “context is lost” when the interview is only transcribed.
The survivors have continued to repeat the “same talking points over and over” to the DOJ, Bensky added. “And it’s just not getting any better.”
In a letter to Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, the committee chair, Garcia wrote that Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s current assistant attorney general for civil rights, is among the lawyers representing Bondi. The arrangement was first reported by Semafor. Democrats say Dhillon’s role raises red flags, but legal experts who spoke to NPR say the decision makes sense.
When a government official or former official testifies about matters tied to that office, “an attorney for the government often appears on behalf of the United States to assert privileges,” Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of Michigan Law School, said in an email.
Dhillon did not respond to requests for comment. The DOJ said in a statement that Dhillon and other department personnel will be at the interview “to assist the Committee in understanding the Department’s role in implementing and complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act during her tenure.”
