WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi ripped House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) as a “washed-up, loser lawyer” before clashing with lawmakers of both parties during a Wednesday hearing.
President Trump’s top law enforcement official testified before the panel following the release of millions of files related to the prosecution of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — with several victims in attendance.
Judiciary Democrats accused Bondi of ignoring those victims and having her Department of Justice harmfully release documents identifying some of them — while redacting members of Epstein’s rich and powerful circle.
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In heated exchanges with Raskin, the AG accused Democrats of only caring about the issue because Trump is in the White House.
Raskin demanded in one of those back-and-forths that Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) restore time to retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), as Bondi ignored his question about possible indictments of Epstein co-conspirators.
“You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch — not on our time, no way,” Raskin said. “And I told you about that, Attorney General, before you started.”
“You don’t tell me anything,” Bondi erupted, before mocking Raskin as a “washed-up, loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”
Bondi then rounded on Nadler, telling him: “You said the president conspired, sought foreign interference in the 2016 election. Robert Mueller found no evidence, none, of foreign interference in 2016. Have you apologized to President Trump?
“You all should be apologizing. You sit here and you attack the president, and I am not going to have it. I’m not going to put up with it,” the AG continued.
“None of them asked Merrick Garland, over the last four years, one word about Jeffrey Epstein. How ironic is that? You know why? Because Donald Trump.”
Most Democrats’ questions — as well as those of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — focused on the so-called “Epstein files,” claiming that the DOJ was covering for those potentially implicated in crimes.
Bondi used her time to draw attention to how Democrats had associated with Epstein for years before his arrest on federal charges in July 2019 — including after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and registered as a sex offender.
US Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat, had even texted with the disgraced financier during a 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing to get tips about questioning ex-Trump legal fixer Michael Cohen.
A rep for the Democratic delegate said in a subsequent statement that “Plaskett received texts from staff, constituents and the public at large offering advice, support and in some cases partisan vitriol, including from Epstein.”
By contrast, most Republican members of the Judiciary panel sought to highlight how the department’s law enforcement operations had succeeded in driving down crime in Washington, DC, Memphis, and other jurisdictions.
