Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday responded to intense questions from House Democrats about the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein file, accusing them of ignoring stock market gains and other political victories for President Donald Trump.
“The Dow is now over 50,000,” Bondi said in sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee after New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler criticized his failure to indict any of Epstein’s potential co-conspirators.
After celebrating the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s rise, Bondi said the S&P 500 is also up, the Nasdaq is “breaking records,” and Americans’ retirement accounts are “booming.” “That’s what we should be talking about.”
Democrats balked at the rhetoric, but Mr. Bondi doubled down.
“What does this have to do with the Dow? That’s what they’re asking now. Are you kidding me?” she said as Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) banged his gavel and called for order in the hearing.
President Trump has repeatedly cited the rise in the stock market as a barometer for his presidency after winning a second term amid voters’ concerns about rising consumer goods prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 50,000 for the first time on Friday, and has extended that streak every day this week.
The Justice Department’s oversight hearings had already devolved into partisan taunts several times before Bondi mentioned the stock market.
In his opening remarks, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s ranking member, accused Bondi of “running a massive Epstein cover-up directly from the Department of Justice.”
Raskin pointed out that the Justice Department has not released millions of files that it is legally required to disclose under the Epstein File Transparency Act, which President Trump signed into law in November after withdrawing his opposition to the bill.
He also criticized the Justice Department for redacting the names of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators and perpetrators and failing to black out the identities of his victims in records released.
“In short, you ignored the law and, despite having more than 100,000 employees at your disposal, you acted with a mixture of stunning incompetence, callous indifference, and disgusting cruelty toward more than 1,000 victims of rape, abuse, and human trafficking,” Raskin said. “This performance screams cover-up.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the first Democrat to question Mr. Bondi, asked a group of Epstein survivors in the hearing room to stand up and raise their hands if they were unable to meet with the Justice Department.
After many women stood and all raised their hands, Jayapal called on Bondi to apologize for the “unacceptable disclosure” of victim information in the Epstein files.
Mr. Bondi began to respond by saying that former Attorney General Merrick Garland had “sat in this chair twice,” at which point the lawmaker interrupted him to ask him to answer a question, and an argument ensued.
“I’m not going to get in the groove for her play,” Bondi said.
More testy exchanges ensued as Bondi and the Democratic Party continued to clash.
After Nadler’s speaking time ended, Bondi admonished the Democratic congressmen who participated in President Trump’s impeachment hearings during Trump’s first administration, saying, “You all owe an apology.”
“You can sit here and attack the president and I’m not going to put up with it,” Bondi said.
Rep. Thomas Massey (R-Ky.), a co-sponsor of the Epstein files bill, slammed Bondi, calling the Justice Department’s redactions a “colossal failure.”
He focused on redactions that obscured former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner’s name “as a co-conspirator in the FBI documents.”
Bondi said the edits were fixed “within 40 minutes.” Massey retorted, “I caught him red-handed for 40 minutes.”
Bondi said Massey suffers from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
