Pam Bondi to testify before Congress after admitting mistakes were made in handling of Epstein files: Live updates
Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to face questioning from lawmakers Wednesday over the Justice Department’s handling of the release of records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are expected to probe Bondi on how the Justice Department determined what should and should not be made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The act set off a 30-day deadline for the complete release of the DOJ’s files on Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Only a small portion of the files were released by the December 19 deadline. Another batch was released on December 23, and five weeks later, another larger trache consisting of three million pages of documents was released, and the DOJ said it had fulfilled its obligations under the act.
However, the DOJ has been met with scrutiny over its handling of the case, with many Democrats and even some Republicans saying it has over-redacted some documents, while inconsistently redacting others and exposing survivors.
A group of Epstein survivors spoke out about the mishandling of the files, running a TV spot during Super Bowl LX Sunday that called for the publication of the remaining documents, telling Bondi, “It’s time to tell the truth.”
Bondi has faced significant backlash over her handling of the Epstein files, and this week admitted in a letter to federal judges that mistakes were made in the case. As a result, the Justice Department “has temporarily removed thousands of documents from the DOJ Epstein Library for further review — including approximately 9,500 documents subject to the Protective Orders in the Maxwell case,” she wrote.
The attorney general is also likely to be pressed by lawmakers about investigations by the Justice Department and the FBI into the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal immigration officers in Minnesota last month.
The hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m.
