May 29 (UPI) — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified to some errors to the House Oversight Committee Friday over her handling of the release of the Epstein files, but said she is “proud” of the Department of Justice’s record and “commitment to transparency” while she was its head
“There were redaction errors,” Bondi said in her opening statement as reported by NPR, NBC News and Politico. The opening statement was obtained in advance by several news organizations. “But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency,” Bondi said.
The testimony was closed to the public and wasn’t recorded on video. A transcript of the proceeding will be released to the public. Bondi wasn’t under oath.
“Our diligent and good-faith effort to collect materials ensured that all potentially responsive documents that could be reasonably located would see the light of day,” Bondi said. “I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster.”
“Our stance has always been that the Department stands ready to review any potential evidence of criminal activity related to Epstein and his associates and would pursue appropriate investigative or prosecutorial action wherever the facts and law warrant,” Bondi said.
The committee subpoenaed Bondi in March after months of documents releases. Her critics say she released files haphazardly and her team was sloppy in its redactions. The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the Department of Justice to redact only the name and identifiers of victims, but many of the files redacted the names of alleged perpetrators.
Convicted sex offender and billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
Bondi said she delegated oversight of the release process to Todd Blanche, who was then her deputy and is now acting attorney general since April 2 when President Donald Trump fired her.
“We haven’t seen the full release of the files, so that’s already a violation of the law,” Dani Bensky, referencing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, told NPR before the testimony. Bensky, who alleged that Epstein sexually abused her when she was a young ballet dancer, said Bondi’s release of the files without proper redactions, “sends such a chilling effect to the rest of the survivor community.”
“It should be transcribed, it should be filmed and it should be publicly released as quickly as possible,” Bensky said. She added that transcription only isn’t good enough because, “context is lost.”
The survivors have repeated “same talking points over and over” to the DOJ, Bensky said. “And it’s just not getting any better.”
A group of survivors came to Washington for the testimony Friday. They asked the committee to record the testimony on video and release it to the public.
Sharlene Rochard, an Epstein victim, confronted Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., on Friday morning while he spoke to survivors before the meeting. She asked him to promise that people brought in as part of the congressional investigation testify under oath, Politico reported.
“If you lie to Congress, it’s a felony,” Comer replied. “We’re bringing people in that have never been brought in before.”
Liz Stein, also an Epstein survivor, asked Comer to find out about the department’s redaction process, specifically about why victims’ identities were exposed and why Epstein’s friends’ names were sometimes redacted.
“Those are questions we’re going to ask, and we’re doing this. We want justice for the survivors,” Comer said. He added that if Epstein’s victims were not satisfied by Bondi’s responses, the committee would work to get answers for them.
Some politicians are continuing to push for more transparency.
“We’re demanding that it be both videotaped under oath and released to the public,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the committee, told NPR.
The committee has questioned several important people about Epstein, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Clintons’ testimonies were filmed, and the videos were released to the public.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said earlier Friday that it was “highly disappointing” that Bondi would not appear for an official deposition.
“She deserves the same treatment as the Clintons and as everybody else,” Mace said. “I’ll be there, though, with bells on,” Mace said, “and I’ll be asking her the tough questions.”
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for human rights, will be alongside Bondi as her lawyer at the hearing, which has raised some eyebrows.
But legal scholars say it’s not unusual.
Barbara McQuade, former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of Michigan Law School, told NPR that when a government official testifies on issues of that office, “an attorney for the government often appears on behalf of the United States to assert privileges.”
Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., another member of the Oversight Committee, told Politico earlier that “the lack of videotape … contributes to the feeling that Americans have that there’s been a cover-up here.”
“I think she recognizes that she doesn’t have good answers to the questions that we’re going to ask, and a videotape makes it more real and brings more attention to it,” Walkinshaw said.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., told Politico he wanted to ask Bondi what specific directives she received from Trump or others on the handling of the Epstein case.
“I spoke with some of the survivors in Florida,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., told Politico. “They were curious why [Bondi has] been hiding so much and what she has to hide herself. Why wouldn’t she be more forthcoming about the files? … Who got to her? What do they have on her? Those are the kinds of questions that the survivors are curious about.”
“So am I, and so are the American people,” he added.
