Attorney General Pam Bondi responded to House Democrats grilling her about the Justice Department’s botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files by… touting the stock market.
“The Dow is over 50,000 right now,” Bondi said under oath Wednesday, as Rep. Jerrold Nadler pressed her on why the DOJ hasn’t indicted any of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are “smashing records,” she continued. “That’s what we should be talking about.”
Not, apparently, the more than 1,000 victims of a prolific sex trafficker whose powerful friends remain unindicted.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The House Judiciary Committee hearing was supposed to provide DOJ oversight—specifically on why the department has failed to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act that Trump himself signed into law in November. Instead, it devolved into partisan chaos, with Bondi deflecting substantive questions by pointing to retirement accounts.
When Democrats balked at her stock market pivot, Bondi doubled down: “What does the Dow have to do with anything? That’s what they just asked. Are you kidding?”
Yes, Pam. That is indeed what everyone was asking.
THE DETAILS: The DOJ has failed to release millions of files it’s legally required to disclose. The documents it did release redacted the names of alleged co-conspirators and enablers—while somehow failing to protect victims’ identifying information.
“So you ignored the law, and even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000 victims, raped, abused and trafficked,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said. “This performance screams cover-up.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked Epstein survivors in the hearing room to stand if they’d been unable to meet with the DOJ. Numerous women stood. All raised their hands.
When Jayapal asked Bondi to apologize for releasing victims’ personal information, Bondi started blaming former AG Merrick Garland. “I’m not gonna get in the gutter for her theatrics,” she added.
BUT BUT BUT: It wasn’t just Democrats going after Bondi. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who co-sponsored the Epstein transparency bill, called the DOJ’s redactions a “massive failure.” He pointed out that the department had redacted the name of Les Wexner—the former Victoria’s Secret CEO identified as a co-conspirator in FBI documents.
Bondi claimed that redaction was corrected “within 40 minutes.”
Massie’s response: “40 minutes of me catching you red-handed.”
Bondi’s response to the Republican congressman: He has “Trump derangement syndrome.”
WHY IT MATTERS: Sex trafficking victims came to Congress to hear why the Justice Department hasn’t held powerful people accountable. The nation’s top law enforcement official told them to check their 401(k)s instead. When even Republicans on the committee are calling out cover-up behavior, and the Attorney General’s best defense is stock tickers and accusations of “theatrics,” something has gone deeply wrong at the DOJ.