Updated May 29, 2026 at 4:09 PM PDT
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi defended her handling of the Epstein files in a closed-door interview Friday before House lawmakers, noting that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche oversaw the document review process.
"The bottom line is: justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President Trump and his administration," Bondi said in a prepared opening statement obtained by NPR.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Bondi for a closed-door transcribed interview in March to discuss her role in overseeing the DOJ's release of millions of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"There were redaction errors," Bondi said of the released Epstein files. "But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency."
Bondi said handling the release of the Epstein files was an "enormously complicated and labor-intensive process." She also said that she "did not lead every aspect" of the release or "conduct the document review" herself. Instead, she said, she "delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche." Blanche has been acting attorney general since Bondi was ousted from the DOJ's top spot in April.
"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," she continued.
Democrats say Bondi refused to answer questions
Halfway through the closed-door interview, House Democrats told reporters that Bondi repeatedly pointed to Blanche when asked about the files.
"Every single one of our questions got one of three responses. One: 'Not to my recollection' or 'I don't know.' Number two: 'Talk with Todd Blanche — I don't know anything about it.' And number three: 'I am not talking about Donald Trump,'" said Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost.
California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said Democratic lawmakers want both Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel to answer questions before the committee.
Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Jonathan Guynn, a deputy assistant attorney general in the department's civil division, represented Bondi.
Dhillon told reporters after the interview that Bondi deferred to Blanche on some questions because it is common for parts of the attorney general's job to be delegated. She also said that Bondi did not answer some questions related to Trump because of certain "ground rules laid with the committee." She said she would not discuss the details of those ground rules.
Survivors and Democrats have long criticized Bondi's handling and release of the Epstein files. They say Bondi made contradictory statements about what was in the documents, exposed survivors' names and private information, and removed key files related to President Trump. Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Bondi's opening statement on Friday followed a pattern set in her previous testimony, in which she defended the department's work and how it handled the release of the Epstein files. She has argued that some missteps happened because government lawyers faced a tight timeline imposed by Congress to review millions of pages of material.
"To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress' law," Bondi said at a hearing in February. "We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public while doing our very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation to protect victims."
On the campaign trail before his second term, Trump promised to release significant information on Epstein, but even some of the president's supporters have joined critics to say Bondi did not deliver on that promise.
"We haven't seen the full release of the files, so that's already a violation of the law," said Dani Bensky, referencing the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Bensky, who says Epstein sexually abused her as a young ballerina, says Bondi's release of the files without proper redactions of victims' identities "sends such a chilling effect to the rest of the survivor community."
Calls for justice for survivors and the release of more files
On Friday morning outside the proceedings, a group of survivors, including Bensky, held up documents and pleaded for transparency. They wore butterfly pins for Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in 2025. Survivors identified specific documents they said could be "leads" for the DOJ.
"Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche have derailed the lives of so many survivors," Bensky said. "They have serious questions to answer for. So for the Epsteinth time, when do we get investigations? And who the hell are we protecting?"
Speaking before the transcribed interview started, Committee Chair James Comer said Bondi would be the 13th interview the committee has conducted regarding Epstein and that six more are planned, including Bill Gates.
"The government has failed the survivors," Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, told reporters. "We're taking this investigation seriously."
He also promised to ask questions to obtain "justice for the survivors."
"What we're trying to do is just connect all the dots, and see if there is a way to hold people accountable," Comer said. "And try to understand how the government failed."
Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said he was "incredibly disappointed" that the interview would not be videotaped or given under oath.
"We obviously have a lot of questions as it relates to why only 50% of the files have been released, why many of the survivors … were literally put in danger by the way the files were released – that private information should never have been released," Garcia said to reporters Friday. "And of course, why this continues to be some type of cover up."
Push for open, videotaped interview
Friday's interview drew additional scrutiny in recent weeks because it was going to be held behind closed doors and transcribed, rather than videotaped under oath.
The House Oversight Committee has questioned a number of high-profile individuals about Epstein, including his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former lawyer and accountant, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. The committee videotaped and released a recording of the Clintons' deposition to the public. Other transcriptions, like Lutnick's, were released days after the testimony. Bondi's transcription will be released in a similar manner, according to the committee.
"We deserve a proper, under-oath sworn deposition that is filmed and released," Bensky said Friday. "We deserve to hear every inflection, see every reaction, and digest this information in real time so that we can figure out a response for ourselves as a nation. We deserve more than closed-door, backroom deals."
Beyond the Epstein files, Bondi's time in office had been marked by criticism from some legal experts and others who say she oversaw what they term the weaponizing of the department to advance Trump's agenda.
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