Donald Trump’s attorney-general, Pam Bondi, has refused to apologise to victims over her department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Bondi was testifying before a House Judiciary Committee when Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal asked any Epstein survivors in the room to stand.
“Please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice,” Jayapal said.
All of the survivors raised their hands.
“Will you turn to them now and apologise for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information?” Jayapal asked Bondi.
Bondi did not turn around to face the victims and refused to apologise.
“Why didn’t she ask Merrick Garland this twice when he sat in my chair?” Bondi said, referring to her predecessor in the Biden administration.
“I’m not gonna get in the gutter for her theatrics.”
But she did express her sympathies for victims of sexual assault.
“I am deeply sorry for what any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster,” she said.
The tense congressional testimony was marked by combative answers directed at Democrats on the panel.
At one point, she described Congressman Jamie Raskin as a “washed-up, loser lawyer”.
“Have you apologised to President Trump?” Bondi asked of Democrats.
“You sit here and you attack the president, and I am not going to have it.”
She criticised the committee for not talking about the stock market.
“The Dow is over 50,000 right now, the S&P at almost 7000, and the NASDAQ smashing records, Americans’ 401(k)s and retirement savings are booming,” she said.
“That’s what we should be talking about.”
Democrats were highly critical of Bondi’s testimony.
“Pam Bondi’s place in history is going to be as the attorney-general who is one of the greatest defenders of paedophiles and sexual abusers in American history,” Jason Crow said.
“Her place in history will also be as the person that turned America’s Justice Department into a political hatchet operation for Donald Trump’s opponents.”
It also appears Bondi and the Department of Justice have been surveilling representatives as they conduct their own investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
A photographer during the hearing snapped a picture of a piece of paper in a folder in Bondi’s hands.
The document is titled: “Jayapal Pramila Search History”.
The file appears to include details from the Epstein files.
This week, members of Congress were allowed to view unredacted documents in the Epstein files.
“It is totally inappropriate and against the separations of powers for the DOJ to surveil us as we search the Epstein files,” Jayapal later said.
“Bondi showed up today with a burn book that held a printed search history of exactly what emails I searched.”
The Department of Justice has released millions of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, many of which are heavily redacted.
Epstein used his wealth and power to sexually abuse many underage girls.