Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is apparently done taking the fall for the Trump administration’s disastrous handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
During a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee, Bondi reportedly pointed the finger squarely at Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, for the chaotic and deeply controversial release of millions of Epstein-related documents.
And according to Democratic lawmakers who attended the hearing, Bondi cracked under pressure fast.
“It was Todd Blanche, the current acting AG, that was leading the Epstein investigation,” Rep. Robert Garcia told reporters afterward.
Garcia said Bondi repeatedly blamed Blanche for what critics have called a catastrophic mishandling of sensitive records, including botched redactions that allegedly exposed roughly 100 survivors while protecting the perpetrators.
“And quite frankly, all of the mistakes that we saw — the redactions, not protecting survivors — she continues to push that back onto the acting AG Todd Blanche,” Garcia said.
That detail alone is politically explosive.
Blanche is not just Trump’s acting attorney general. He also previously served as Trump’s personal defense lawyer — another example of Trump blurring the line between the Justice Department and his own legal protection racket.
According to Garcia, lawmakers pressed Bondi multiple times about conversations she may have had with Trump regarding Epstein and the document releases.
She refused to answer. Five separate times.
“In fact, she said she would not speak or respond to any questions that had anything to do with President Trump,” Garcia said.
That refusal is likely to intensify questions about how directly involved Trumpworld may have been in decisions surrounding the Epstein files and their release.
In prepared remarks submitted to the committee, Bondi admitted there had been “redaction errors” during the release process — a sterile phrase for what critics say was an extraordinary failure that exposed survivors’ identities in a matter tied to one of the most notorious sex trafficking scandals in modern history.
Still, Bondi attempted to frame the administration as committed to “accountability and transparency.”
“But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency,” Bondi claimed.
That defense may be a hard sell given the growing perception that the entire operation has descended into finger-pointing, legal chaos, and political damage control.
And now, with Bondi openly shifting blame onto Trump’s acting AG, while refusing to discuss Trump himself, the scandal appears to be spiraling deeper into the administration’s inner circle.
This story is still developing.
