Pam Bondi, fired as attorney general by President Trump in April, insisted on Friday that she had little real authority in overseeing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. She placed responsibility squarely on her former deputy and successor, Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel.
Her remarks were delivered during a closed-door interview before the House Oversight Committee in Washington. They were a bracingly candid admission of her own powerlessness that belied her former role as one of the most powerful figures in the US government.
Bondi told committee members that Blanche was managing “the entire investigation,” according to Representative Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee. She added that Blanche was responsible for determining which documents would be released. She also repeatedly punted to Patel, the FBI director.
The Contradiction
Current and former Justice Department officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, disputed Bondi’s characterization. They said she was not only informed of every key development in the Epstein case but signed off on every major decision — including issuing a memo in July 2025 that formally ended the government’s review of the files.
In one remarkable exchange, Bondi claimed to have played no role in the drafting or release of that July 2025 memo — now seen as a major blunder that fed a political backlash, claims of a cover-up, and eventually paved the way for the Justice Department’s full release of the files.
When asked if she knew what information was used to put a stop to the review, Bondi told committee members that they needed, yet again, to ask Blanche and Patel.
The Hearing’s Unusual Format
To lower the stakes of Friday’s hearing, Bondi and committee Republicans agreed to conduct a “voluntary” interview rather than a sworn deposition that would have been legally binding, or a formal committee hearing with greater consequences and heightened scrutiny.
The hearing took place early on a Friday of a holiday week, with most of Congress — including all but one of the committee’s Republicans — out of town. Most of the committee’s Democrats attended, leaving Bondi without the support of her fellow Republicans.
The exception was the committee’s chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, who offered her a polite thank-you for appearing.
The Victims’ Reaction
Outside the closed-door committee room in Washington, some of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors gathered to criticize Bondi, but also to make the point that she was not the only one who needed to be held accountable.
“I really hope that we are not using Pam Bondi as a scapegoat,” said Danielle Bensky, one of the survivors. “I feel that Todd Blanche is actually more dangerous in a lot of ways than Bondi.”
The Political Pressure
That Bondi was compelled to testify at all reflected growing anger in her own party about the Justice Department’s erratic actions in the Epstein case — a saga that grew from a conspiracy theory sideshow into a crisis that engulfed the Trump presidency.
In mid-March, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina and four other Republicans on the committee blindsided their own leadership and Bondi by joining Democrats to vote to subpoena her to testify under oath behind closed doors about the Epstein case.
Bondi was fired on April 2. Weeks of negotiations followed to determine the format of her interview — which Democrats have criticized as an attempt to shield the former attorney general from answering questions under oath in a televised spotlight.
The Bottom Line
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the House Oversight Committee in Washington that she had no real authority over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, placing responsibility on Todd Blanche and Kash Patel. Current and former Justice Department officials disputed her account, saying she signed off on key decisions. The hearing was voluntary, not sworn, and took place on a holiday week with most Republicans absent. Epstein survivors called for accountability beyond Bondi.
