U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi takes her seat before testifying during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Department of Justice Oversight” on February 11, 2026, at the Capitol in Washington, DC.
Robert Schmidt AFP | Getty Images
At Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to have a printout of Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s search history of the Justice Department’s database of documents related to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A photo of a black binder held by Bondi at the hearing showed the words “Jayapal Pramila Search History” and a list of documents matching the number in the Epstein files.
Jayapal, D-Wash., and other members of Congress have been visiting the Justice Department in recent days to view Epstein-related documents that have not been released to the public.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi holds up a sign that reads “Jayapal Pramila Search History,” a reference to U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, during a committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters
Jayapal is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and during Wednesday’s hearing she had a contentious exchange with Bondi after she asked survivors of Epstein’s abuse who were present at the hearing to stand up and indicate whether they were denied access to the Justice Department.
Several women stood up and raised their hands.
When Jayapal asked her to apologize to the victims for the Justice Department’s failure to fully redact their names when the files were released to the public, Bondi said, “I’m not going to get into a ditch because of her theatrics.”
After the hearing, Ms Jayapal told MS Now’s Ali Belushi that she believed Ms Bondi had her search history.
Jayapal told MS Now that he assumed his searches would be available to the Justice Department, but he did not expect them to be used to prepare Bondi for Wednesday’s testimony.
“It’s completely inappropriate,” Jayapal told MS Now.
“Is this the whole reason they released (the files) to us two days early? I mean, could they have monitored the members to know what we were going to ask her?” Jayapal asked.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s questions about whether Bondi had a printout of the congressman’s search history, why he had it, or whether the Justice Department was recording the search history of other congressmen.
