Democratic lawmakers have grilled United States Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, during a combative hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

Wednesday’s hearing was entitled “Oversight of the US Department of Justice”, but the Epstein files quickly became a primary focus.

“ As attorney general, you are siding with the perpetrators, and you’re ignoring the victims,” Democrat Jamie Raskin told Bondi at the outset.

“That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”

Since the start of his second term, US President Donald Trump and his administration have consistently faced questions about the decision to withhold or redact documents related to Epstein.

Trump himself has come under the microscope for his personal relationship to the late financier, who died in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting federal charges.

At Wednesday’s hearing, women who had come forward as survivors of Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring and their families sat in the audience behind Bondi. They included Teresa Helm, Jess Michaels and Lara Blume McGee, as well as the family of the late Virginia Giuffre.

Representative Pramila Jayapal asked Bondi to apologise to Epstein’s victims. She and other Democrats criticised the Trump administration for not meeting with the survivors — and for the heavy redaction of the released Epstein files.

“Your department has shown a pattern of redacting the names of powerful predators,” Jayapal said.

She then asked the survivors to raise their hands if they had been unable to meet with the Department of Justice.

“For the record,” Jayapal added, “every single survivor has raised their hand.”

Bondi rejects criticism

Bondi responded harshly to the criticism she faced, saying that she would not “get in the gutter” with Jayapal and her fellow Democrats.

She also accused Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who helped spearhead a law forcing the release of the Epstein files, of having “Trump derangement syndrome”.

When asked whether she would investigate Trump’s links to Epstein, Bondi said that Democrats were using the Epstein affair to “deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done”.

Trump himself has faced criticism for calling the Epstein scandal a Democratic “hoax”.

But Al Jazeera correspondent Rosiland Jordan explained that Democrats were trying to leverage outrage over an issue that has transcended political parties.

After all, members of Trump’s own “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base were among those publicly clamouring for the release of the government’s Epstein files.

“Congressional Democrats believe that they are tapping into the broadening public disgust with the way that the Trump administration has handled the release of the Epstein files,” Jordan reported from the US Capitol.

“This is a situation where the officials on the Democratic side try to get Pam Bondi to apologise for not doing enough, including not complying fully with a new law that compels the Justice Department to release all six million pages of evidence in the Epstein case.”

Compliance with the law?

That new law, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed into law in November with bipartisan support.

It requires the Justice Department to publish all of its documents related to Epstein in an easily searchable format.

Though the law does allow for some limited redaction to protect the identities of victims, critics argue that scores of documents have been published with heavy redactions.

Some of those blacked-out sections appear to shield the identity of powerful figures involved with Epstein.

During her opening statement on Wednesday, Bondi, a prosecutor from Florida, defended her record of addressing sexual abuse.

“ I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so,” she said.

She added a message directed at the Epstein survivors: “I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim, has been through, especially as a result of that monster.”

But Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, accused Bondi of using the redactions to “spare” abusers and accomplices from “embarrassment and disgrace”.

He also questioned the volume of records that have been released, arguing that they fell short of the full disclosure required by November’s law.

“ You’ve been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over six million documents, photographs, and videos in the Epstein files,” Raskin said.

“But you’ve turned over only three million. You say you’re not turning over the other three million because they’re somehow duplicative. But we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there.”

Questions about prosecutions

Bondi also faced questions about the numerous investigations and lawsuits the Justice Department has brought against Trump’s political rivals.

In September, for instance, the Justice Department announced charges against Trump critic James Comey, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The following month, it also unveiled charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, a politician who had brought a successful civil case against Trump.

Both charges were dropped, amid questions about the legality of US Attorney Lindsey Halligan’s appointment. But those charges and other investigations have fuelled criticism that Trump is using the Justice Department to settle political scores.

On Wednesday, Democratic Representative Mary Gay Scanlon asked Bondi if the administration was curating an “enemies list” based on an October order to crack down on alleged “left-wing terrorism”.

Bondi responded that she was “not going to commit to anything to you because you won’t let me answer questions”.

(Aljazeera)

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