Pam Bondi accused of hiding names of Epstein associates

A US lawmaker has accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of concealing the names of powerful associates of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms Bondi faced questions about the Justice Department’s handling of investigative files in a charged hearing before a House of Representatives panel.

Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, who helped lead the effort to require the files’ release, accused the Justice Department of a “massive failure” to comply with the law.

He questioned why billionaire Leslie Wexner’s name was redacted in an FBI document listing potential co-conspirators in the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.

Ms Bondi said Mr Wexner’s name appeared numerous times in other files the department released and the DOJ unredacted his name on the document “within 40 minutes” of Mr Massie spotting it.

“Forty minutes of me catching you red-handed,” Mr Massie replied.

Ms Bondi had a series of other heated confrontations with members of the House Judiciary Committee who expressed frustration with the amount of Epstein material the department has redacted and withheld.

Several victims of Epstein’s alleged crimes watched from the public gallery.

The Justice Department released what it called a final tranche of more than three million pages of documents late in January, drawing renewed attention to wealthy and powerful individuals who maintained ties with Epstein even after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Lawmakers have complained that redactions in the files appear to go beyond the limited exemptions allowed for in a law Congress passed nearly unanimously in November. The department has also declined to publish a large volume of material, citing legal privileges.

Ms Bondi responded to the criticism in many cases with personal attacks on lawmakers and praise for US President Donald Trump.

Flipping through a binder, she accused Democrats of being indifferent to crime victims in their districts and called the panel’s top Democrat a “washed-up lawyer”, a notably partisan tone from the chief law enforcement officer in the US.

She said more than 500 Justice Department lawyers worked on a compressed timeline to review reams of material. Any disclosure of victims’ identities was inadvertent, she said.

“I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so,” Ms Bondi said in her opening statement on Wednesday, US time.

Mr Wexner, a former chief executive and founder of Victoria’s Secret-owner L Brands, hired Epstein as his personal money manager starting in the 1980s.

He has accused Epstein of using his money to buy properties and goods and says he severed ties around 2007, after Epstein was first criminally charged.

Mr Wexner has denied knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities and has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.

The Epstein files have dogged Ms Bondi throughout her tenure as Mr Trump’s attorney general. The Justice Department’s decision to initially not release further material sparked a furious reaction from some of Mr Trump’s online supporters.

It drew new scrutiny to Mr Trump’s past friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal, of Washington, asked Ms Bondi to apologise to victims of Epstein’s alleged crimes who were seated in the public gallery for the department’s rollout of the files, including the disclosure of victims’ names in some cases.

Ms Bondi questioned why Ms Jayapal had not asked the same question of her predecessor under Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and said she would not “get in the gutter for her theatrics”.

Ms Bondi’s appearance before the Republican-controlled panel came the day after a Federal grand jury declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers over a video they made urging the US military not to comply with unlawful orders.

The department’s tradition of independence in criminal investigations has eroded as it has pursued investigations into Mr Trump’s political adversaries and aligned with his grievances.