WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pamela Bondi showed little regret during an oversight hearing Wednesday for the Justice Department’s controversial handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, a release that publicly exposed the names and identifying information of survivors.

Instead, with some survivors behind her at the hearing, the attorney general struck a brazenly antagonistic posture before the House Judiciary Committee as Democrats raised issues tied to Epstein and a law Congress passed last year that ordered the release of records related to him.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the panel, was among committee members who criticized the DOJ for overly redacting information that could identify people who may have been co-conspirators or enablers of Epstein’s abuse, while failing to fully redact victim information.

In his opening remarks, Raskin told Bondi she was “running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”

“As attorney general, you’re siding with the perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims,” Raskin said. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course.”

Throughout the hourslong hearing, Bondi said that millions of Epstein documents had been released under the Trump administration and questioned why the topic did not receive more attention under the Biden administration.

She appeared to downplay the seriousness of Democratic concerns by claiming those lawmakers were highlighting the issues to distract from the successes of the Trump administration, citing falling crime rates and high stock market values.

The high-profile hearing at times devolved into shouting matches when Democratic lawmakers zeroed in on Epstein-related topics. In other moments, their questions led to testy exchanges escalated by Bondi herself.

Early in the hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., pressed Bondi to apologize directly to some of the women who faced abuse from Epstein and were in the room for the hearing.

“It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors,” Jayapal said.

Bondi questioned why Jayapal did not ask former Attorney General Merrick Garland about the topic when he appeared before the committee.

“I’m not going to get in the gutter with this woman,” Bondi said moments later, referring to the lawmaker. “She’s doing theatrics.”

Republicans, for their part, sought to defend Bondi and focused their questioning on so-called sanctuary cities and immigration enforcement.

The lone Republican on the panel to criticize Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files was Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the main backers of last year’s law. He laid into the department for releasing a largely unredacted email that explicitly included the names of survivors.

“Literally the worst thing you could do to the survivors, you did,” he told Bondi.

The law required the Justice Department to publish — in a searchable format — all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. It required information that could identify victims to be redacted.

The transparency law had an original deadline of Dec. 19, 2025, when the DOJ released a limited number of files. They released a sprawling new trove of documents late last month, saying they were providing more than 3 million additional pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

Victim information

The failure to redact victim information was so widespread that attorneys who represent Epstein survivors urged a federal judge to intervene, writing that the document release “may be the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.”

In a short period after the large document release in January, those attorneys wrote they had identified thousands of redaction failures on behalf of nearly 100 survivors.

The department for months had the names of victims it agreed to redact, the attorneys wrote. And the situation could have been avoided if the department typed each victim’s name into its own search bar and redacted any hits that appeared, the attorneys wrote.

Bondi devoted part of her opening remarks to addressing the Epstein survivors, urging them to reach out to the FBI with any information. Any accusations of criminal wrongdoing would be taken seriously and investigated, she said.

“I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim, has been through, especially as a result of that monster,” Bondi said.

But her opening comments stopped short of apologizing for the release of victim information. Later in the hearing, Bondi said the department was handling millions of pages and assured the department would redact victim names when notified.

“Our error rate is very low,” she said.

Democrats also pressed Bondi over a memorandum issued last summer, in which the department said a review of Epstein-related records did not find evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged individuals.

That reasoning was unacceptable, Democrats said, given information in now-public documents.

At the hearing, lawmakers appeared irritated and perplexed as they asked Bondi what they saw as straight-forward questions, only to be met with stonewalling.

“I think it’s pathetic that she can’t answer the questions and instead is attacking members of the committee,” quipped Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

“Oh for goodness’s sakes, this is pathetic. This is pathetic, Mr. Chair,” shouted Vermont Democrat Becca Balint, hitting her hand on the desk during her questioning time. “I am not asking trick questions here.”

_____

©2026 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.