Live updates: Bondi to face questions on Epstein files release in DOJ oversight hearing

Bondi’s hearing concluded after almost six hours of tense exchanges, featuring several hostile screaming matches with Democrats over the Epstein files.

Even by the standards of the unprecedentedly contentious hearings that have characterized President Donald Trump’s second term, Bondi’s was among the most hostile.

The Washington Examiner’s live coverage of the attorney general’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee has ended.

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory behavior showed up to Bondi’s hearing wearing matching shirts, which said that they’re “still waiting.”

“The truth is ___ ___,” the shirt read, with black squares over the end of the sentence, in the style of the redactions within the Epstein case’s files.

“Epstein survivors are still waiting,” the second line read, concluding with the line, “Release the ___ files.”

Several stood behind Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) as she ranted against Bondi’s handling of Epstein’s personal records, hailing them as “survivors.” Earlier in the hearing, the victims raised their hands when asked by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) whether anyone hadn’t been asked to meet with Bondi.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) shouted at Bondi to “quiet” during an exchange on improper redactions in the Epstein files.

Goldman presented a redacted email from Epstein to his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, showing part of a comment Epstein made about his prior relationship with President Donald Trump. He asked if she would “commit to publicly providing the unredacted version of this so that the American people can understand the extent of Donald Trump’s lie about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?”

“You’re about as good of a lawyer today as you were when you tried to impeach President Trump in 2019. Have you apologized for that?” she responded.

After a back-and-forth, Goldman shouted, “Quiet!”

His comment left members scrambling to regain order.

Bondi, on multiple occasions, chose to respond to heated questions by Democrats concerning matters related to the Epstein files by flagging two high-profile murders of individuals at the hands of criminals.

One of those references surrounded David Chris Malin, a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was killed in August 2025 during a traffic stop in Vermont. She also cited the death of Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina, a Ukrainian woman who was stabbed to death on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte.

“Who is Chris Malin?” Bondi asked Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) as Balint was grilling her about the Epstein files.

Bondi also exhibited a similar tactic when questioned by Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC).

Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL) said Bondi is “one of the worst attorneys general” in U.S. history.

The Illinois representative took his five minutes at Bondi’s hearing to deride her performance as attorney general, calling her “an instrument of [President] Donald Trump’s lawless authoritarian agenda.”

“You weaponize the Department of Justice to target immigrants, working families, and anyone that Trump deems an enemy of the state, all to protect real, powerful criminals, including in your administration,” Garcia told Bondi. “My Democratic colleagues have focused on your cover-up of the Epstein files and your passion for protecting pedophiles and child traffickers. That alone is grounds for impeachment.”

Bondi responded by referencing the representative’s decision to delay his retirement announcement until the final day to file for election in his district. This made it so his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, became the only Democrat running for his congressional seat.

Bondi declined to answer any questions about whether Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell would receive clemency from the Trump administration, though she didn’t mince words about her feelings regarding the convicted sex trafficker.

“I don’t know why,” Bondi said when asked about Maxwell’s transfer to a lower-level prison last summer, before adding that the Epstein associate is someone who “hopefully will die in prison.”

Maxwell is currently in her fourth year of a 20-year prison term after she was sentenced in 2022, following her conviction on counts including trafficking and procuring underage girls for Epstein.

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell before he could face trial in 2019, leaving Maxwell as the main defendant from the late financier’s sex trafficking crimes.

She invoked her Fifth Amendment rights this week during a deposition before a separate House committee, and her attorney said she would be willing to speak openly if promised clemency by Trump, which the administration has repeatedly said is not under current consideration.

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) and Bondi shouted at each other during a series of questions about Howard Lutnick and other Trump administration officials’ connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

“Now I’ve seen some of the unredacted Epstein files, and obviously, as you know, President [Donald] Trump’s name is all over them, but so are the names of other senior Trump officials: Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce; John Phelan, the secretary of the Navy; and Steven Feinberg, the deputy secretary of defense,” Balint said.

“These men were appointed by President Trump to senior positions in his administration; all of them have clear and confirmed ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Attorney General Bondi, yes or no, has the Justice Department asked Secretary Lutnick about his ties to Epstein?” she questioned, to which Bondi answered that Lutnick has already addressed the ties.

What ensued was a prolonged shouting match, one of the fiercest in a hearing distinguished by heated exchanges. It culminated in Balint berating Bondi after she invoked antisemitism, saying her grandfather had died in the Holocaust.

Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) clashed with Bondi over some of the luxuries enjoyed by Ghislaine Maxwell in prison.

“I think you and pretty much everybody else here and throughout the country believe that convicted sex offenders don’t deserve special treatment or privileges in prison. And yet, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, received perk after perk in prison,” Ross said.

“In July, she had a two-day interview with your deputy and President [Donald] Trump’s former defense attorney, Todd Blanche. Just days after that, Maxwell was transferred from a federal correctional institution in Florida to a minimum security camp in Texas, which she, as a sex offender, would normally be ineligible for at this new facility,” she added.

Among the special privileges and perks outlined were “puppy time, private workouts, personal mail, [and] secretarial services.”

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) invoked her son’s 2012 murder as she pressed Bondi over the administration’s rhetoric surrounding the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota. McBath said families “deserve respect and an investigation into their murders.”

She accused officials of spreading “sickening lies” about Pretti and Renee Good, including labeling Pretti an “assassin” and “the definition of domestic terrorism.” McBath asked Bondi if she would “denounce the statements” and protect their names.

Bondi replied that both cases are “ongoing and active investigations” and said, “I assure you, they will be investigated.” McBath shot back that the families have not received the same commitment or respect.

When questioning shifted, Bondi pointed to the Justice Department’s efforts to curb crime in Georgia, where McBath’s district is located. Bondi said that her critics focus on Minnesota to avoid issues in their own districts. She cited her agency’s work on a child exploitation case and a large meth operation in the Atlanta area in defense of the DOJ’s priorities.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) faulted Bondi for participating in what he claimed was “part” of a multi-year cover-up by four past presidential administrations concerning Epstein, arguing that it’s “bigger than Watergate.”

“You don’t have to go back to [former President Joe] Biden. Let’s go back to [former President Barack] Obama. Let’s go back to [former President George W.] Bush. This cover-up spans decades, and you are responsible for this portion,” Massie said.

Massie’s line of questioning pressed the attorney general about why the Epstein files contain no information concerning internal decisions not to prosecute businessman Les Wexner, as unredacted FBI documents listed him at one point as a “co-conspirator” to Epstein’s crimes.

“Because our Epstein files [law] requires you … to release the internal decision about whether to prosecute him or not. And it’s not in the files,” Massie said. Bondi panned Massie as a hypocrite, saying he was one of two lawmakers who voted against the Take It Down Act last year, which compels online platforms to remove any artificially generated deep fake pornography.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pressed Bondi on the DOJ violating Epstein’s victims’ privacy through the manner of release of the Epstein files.

“There were lots of survivors who had decided, for reasons of their own, never to release their names … and we built it into our federal law that their names could not be released, and yet you published their names, their phone numbers, their addresses, personally identifying information,” Raskin said.

“If [President] Donald Trump can get $10 billion theoretically from the Department of Justice, how much should these people get for a far worse violation of their privacy and a far greater danger established to them in their lives?” he added, referring to a lawsuit over the release of personal information in Trump’s tax returns.

The two then got into a back-and-forth, with Raskin objecting to Bondi bringing up a sex criminal in his own district. She derided him as having Trump derangement syndrome.

Raskin complained that Bondi was violating the rules, going “off on a wild goose chase and … reading statistics, or you start talking about stuff going on in our district.”

Bondi told Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) that the Department of Justice would soon intensify efforts to crack down on fraud in California.

When asked whether the DOJ was aware of any fraud in the Golden State, Bondi boasted of the agency’s new Fraud Section, saying it would contribute to investigations in California.

“We are establishing, as you have heard, a fraud unit, and I’m sorry you’re having to deal with that in your state, but the cavalry is coming,” she declared.

“We’re working on Minneapolis. I don’t know if you were sitting here when I said that … but California was right up there. I’m sorry to say for both sides of the aisle that California is right up there with fraud,” Bondi told Kiley. “It’s out of control, but we are coming to your rescue. [President] Donald Trump is coming to the rescue.”

Bondi derided Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) as a “failed politician” and said he had Trump derangement syndrome.

After Massie pressed Bondi on the DOJ’s failure to retract victims’ names and the retraction of possible perpetrators’ names in the initial release of the Epstein files, Bondi bashed the congressman.

“This guy has Trump derangement syndrome … You’re a failed politician,” she said, after Massie claimed he caught her “red-handed” in a cover-up.

Massie claimed the “cover-up” extended four administrations, and was “bigger than Watergate.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) confronted Bondi over a Justice Department memo from last July regarding the Epstein case that stated, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

Referring to photos displayed during the hearing, Lieu said there was “more than enough evidence to predicate an investigation against former Prince Andrew.” He then asked Bondi, “Why did you shut down this investigation last July, and why have you not prosecuted former Prince Andrew?”

Lieu then accused her of “lying under oath” and called on her to “resign” immediately.

“Don’t you ever accuse me,” Bondi shot back, adding that Democrats had not pressed former Attorney General Merrick Garland the same way. Lieu responded that Garland and others “dropped the ball,” but said Bondi is now “in charge” and has the power to act.

Lieu then pivoted to Donald Trump, noting that the president attended parties with Epstein long before he came to office and asking Bondi, “Were there any underage girls at that party, or at any party that Donald Trump attended with Jeffrey Epstein?”

Bondi did not directly answer as the exchange grew heated, as she pivoted to attacking California’s leadership failures and neglect in cracking down on illegal immigrants. Lieu “didn’t want to talk about all the crime that is happening in his state,” she said.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) described Bondi as a “child” over her performance at Wednesday’s hearing.

Grijalva said Bondi’s “behavior in front of the Judiciary Committee this morning is utterly disgraceful.”

“Stop acting like a child. Start doing your job,” she said.

Grijalva’s comments were echoed by Democrats throughout the hearing, with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) calling on Bondi to resign immediately after.