US Legal professional Normal Bondi deflects questions, clashes with democrats over Epstein information

[ad_1] US Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi launched right into a passionate defence of Donald Trump on Wednesday as she tried to show the web page from relentless criticism of the Justice Division’s dealing with of the Jeffrey Epstein information, repeatedly shouting at Democrats throughout a combative listening to during which she postured herself because the Republican president's chief protector.

Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponised Justice Division, Bondi aggressively pivoted in a unprecedented speech during which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the efficiency of the inventory market and overtly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a sufferer of previous impeachments and investigations.

“You sit right here and also you assault the president and I’m not going to have it," Bondi informed lawmakers on the Home Judiciary Committee. "I'm not going to place up with it.”

With victims of Epstein seated behind her within the listening to room, Bondi forcefully defended the division's dealing with of the information associated to the well-connected financier, a problem that has dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of utilizing the Epstein information to distract from Trump's successes, regardless that it was Republicans who initiated the furore over the information and Bondi herself fanned the flames by distributing binders to conservative influencers on the White Home final yr.

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© France 24 The listening to shortly devolved right into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly lobbing insults at Democrats whereas insisting she was not “going to get within the gutter” with them. In a single significantly fiery trade, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to reply his questions, prompting the legal professional normal to name the highest Democrat on the committee a “washed-up loser lawyer – not even a lawyer".

Aiming to assist Bondi amid an onslaught of Democratic criticism, Republicans tried to maintain the deal with bread-and-butter legislation enforcement points like violent crime and unlawful immigration. Bondi, for her half, repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding as a substitute with assaults seemingly gleaned from information headlines as she sought to solid them as disinterested in violence of their districts. Democrats grew exasperated as Bondi declined repeatedly to instantly reply.

“That is pathetic. That is pathetic," mentioned Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi about completely different Trump administration officers revealed to have had ties to Epstein. “I'm not asking trick questions right here. The American individuals have a proper to know the solutions to this."

Bondi has struggled to maneuver previous the backlash over the Epstein information since she handed out the binders to a gaggle of social media influencers in February 2025. The binders included no new revelations about Epstein, resulting in much more calls from Trump’s base for the information to be launched.

In her opening remarks, Bondi informed Epstein victims to come back ahead to legislation enforcement with any details about their abuse and mentioned she was “deeply sorry” for what they'd suffered. She informed the survivors that “any accusation of felony wrongdoing will probably be taken significantly and investigated".

Learn extra France calls for investigation into diplomat cited in Epstein information

However she refused when pressed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., to show and face the Epstein victims within the viewers and apologize for what Trump's Justice Division has “put them by". She accused the Democrat of “theatrics".

Bondi’s look on Capitol Hill got here a yr into her tumultuous tenure, which has amplified issues that the Justice Division is utilizing its legislation enforcement powers to focus on political foes of the president. Only a day earlier, the division sought to safe prices in opposition to Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging navy service members to not comply with “unlawful orders". However in a unprecedented rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment.

Turning apart criticism that the Justice Division below her watch has grow to be politicized, Bondi touted the division’s work to scale back violent crime and mentioned she was decided to revive the division to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated paperwork and political weaponisation".

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for undoing actions below President Joe Biden's Justice Division that Republicans say unfairly focused conservatives – together with Trump, who was charged in two federal felony instances that have been deserted after his 2024 election victory.

“What a distinction a yr makes," Jordan mentioned. "Beneath Legal professional Normal Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions – upholding the rule of legislation, going after the dangerous guys and holding People protected."

Democrats, in the meantime, excoriated Bondi over haphazard redactions within the Epstein information that uncovered intimate particulars about victims and included nude pictures. A overview by The Related Press and different information organisations has discovered numerous examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions which have revealed delicate personal data.

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© France 24 “You’re siding with the perpetrators and also you’re ignoring the victims," Raskin informed Bondi in his opening assertion. “That will probably be your legacy until you act shortly to alter the course. You are operating a large Epstein cover-up proper out of the Division of Justice."

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who broke together with his social gathering to advance the laws that pressured the launched of the Epstein information, additionally took Bondi to activity for the discharge of victims’ private data, telling her, “Actually the worst factor you might do to survivors, you probably did.”

Bondi informed Massie that he was solely targeted on the information as a result of Trump is talked about in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump derangement syndrome".

Division officers have mentioned they took pains to guard survivors, however errors have been inevitable given the quantity of the supplies and the pace at which the division needed to launch them. Bondi informed lawmakers that the Justice Division had taken down information when it was made conscious that they included victims’ data and mentioned workers had tried to do their "absolute best in the time-frame allotted by the laws” mandating the discharge of the information.

After elevating the expectations of conservatives with guarantees of transparency final yr, the Justice Division mentioned in July that it had concluded a overview and decided that no Epstein “consumer checklist” existed and there was no purpose to make further information public. That set off a furore that prompted Congress to go laws demanding that the Justice Division launch the information.

The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein didn't have an inventory of purchasers to whom underage ladies have been trafficked represented a public walk-back of a idea that the Trump administration had helped promote when Bondi recommended in a Fox Information interview final yr that it was sitting on her desk for overview. Bondi later mentioned she was referring to the Epstein information in whole, not a particular consumer checklist.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

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