A House Judiciary Committee hearing turned into full-blown chaos Tuesday when Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to apologize to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein — and Bondi snapped back, sparking a shouting match that left the room reeling.
Jayapal’s point was simple: the Justice Department has repeatedly shielded the identities of Epstein’s associates while publicly releasing the names of victims who were legally supposed to be protected. She asked the 11 survivors in the audience to raise their hands if they hadn’t yet met with DOJ officials. Every hand went up.
Then came the moment that set the room on fire. Jayapal pointed to a previously released email in which Jeffrey Epstein told a man he “loved the torture video.” The man’s name had been redacted in DOJ documents — until Jayapal revealed it: Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of a company with financial ties to President Donald Trump’s businesses.
Jayapal then turned directly to Bondi and demanded she apologize to the survivors for the harm DOJ had caused.
“This is not about anybody that came before you,” Jayapal said. “It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize.”
Bondi’s response was defiant. “I’m not going to get in the gutter with these theatrics,” she shot back. She later muttered that the exchange was “unprofessional.”
The tension didn’t stop there. Bondi went toe-to-toe with Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) shortly after. Nadler pressed: “How many of Epstein’s co-conspirators have you indicted? How many perpetrators are you even investigating?”
“I’m going to answer the question the way I want to answer the question,” Bondi snapped. “Chairman [Jim] Jordan, I’m not going to get in the gutter with these people.”
Raskin tried to intervene, asking for the clock to be stopped so Nadler could continue questioning. Bondi fired back at him personally, claiming the constitutional law expert is “not even a lawyer.” Then she aimed her fire at all Democrats in the room:
“You all should be apologizing. You sit here and you attack the president,” she said, pivoting to defend the administration.
Bondi also claimed the DOJ had been transparent under both administrations. “This has been around since the Obama administration. This Administration released over 3 million pages of documents over 3 million, and Donald Trump signed that law to release all of those documents. He is the most transparent president in the nation’s history,” she said.
The hearing highlighted a Justice Department struggling to answer basic questions about Epstein’s network — and an attorney general more focused on defending a political narrative than acknowledging the survivors sitting right behind her. The explosive revelation of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem’s connection to Epstein — and the demand for an apology — made clear that the stakes in this fight are anything but theoretical.
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