Pam Bondi told House Oversight Committee members Friday that she had little real authority over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, and that the man who replaced her as attorney general, Todd Blanche, was the one running the show. The claim landed with a thud among current and former Justice Department officials, who told the New York Times that Bondi was informed of every key development and signed off on every major decision, including a July 2025 memo that formally ended the government's review of the files.
That gap, between what Bondi told Congress behind closed doors and what her own former colleagues say actually happened, is the heart of a growing credibility problem for the former attorney general. And it raises hard questions about who, exactly, was accountable for the botched rollout of one of the most sensitive document releases in recent memory.
The closed-door interview was not a formal deposition. Bondi refused to testify under oath in a recorded setting, agreeing only to the less rigorous transcribed-interview format. Democrats on the committee had pushed for sworn, video-recorded testimony. Just the News reported that Bondi had been subpoenaed by the committee back in March, while she was still serving as attorney general, and declined to comply with the subpoena's terms for a formal deposition.
That procedural choice matters. A transcribed interview carries less legal weight than sworn testimony, and it gives the witness more room to hedge or decline questions.
Inside the session, Bondi told lawmakers that Blanche was managing "the entire investigation." She said Blanche was responsible for determining which documents would be released. And she repeatedly invoked FBI Director Kash Patel, deflecting questions in his direction as well.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, the committee's ranking Democrat, emerged from the session and relayed Bondi's central claim. Rep. Garcia, who had earlier called for Bondi's full cooperation, stated that Bondi has "extensive personal knowledge about the Trump Administration's handling of the Epstein files, and regardless of her job title, her testimony and deposition are crucial."
Another person present for the testimony described Bondi as having "repeatedly punted to Kash Patel" on questions about the files.
Bondi's claim of limited authority runs into a specific piece of paper. Current and former Justice Department officials said she issued a memo in July 2025 that formally ended the government's review of the Epstein files. That memo did not come from Blanche. It did not come from Patel. It came from Bondi, while she still held the title of attorney general.
Those officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, went further. They said Bondi was not only informed of every key development in the Epstein case but signed off on every major decision. If that account is accurate, the picture Bondi painted for Congress, of a hands-off official watching from the sidelines, does not match the record.
President Trump fired Bondi as attorney general in April 2025 and tapped Blanche as her acting replacement. The circumstances of that departure have generated persistent speculation, though Blanche himself has publicly denied the Epstein files played any role.
Friday's closed-door session was not Bondi's first contentious encounter with Congress on this subject. In a prior House Judiciary Committee hearing, she launched a passionate defense of the president, repeatedly shouting at Democratic members and refusing to directly answer questions about the Epstein files. The Associated Press reported that Bondi called Rep. Jamie Raskin a "washed-up loser lawyer" during that hearing, a moment that captured the combative tone she has brought to Capitol Hill appearances.
The New York Times described Bondi as having resorted to "maximum-volume attacks on Democrats" in past congressional appearances. Friday's session, conducted behind closed doors, apparently produced a quieter version of the same strategy: deflect, redirect, and name someone else.
After leaving the interview, Bondi posted on social media praising Blanche's "Herculean task" of handling the Epstein case. She called him an "incredible" attorney general and denied any friction between the two. The post read less like an honest accounting and more like a carefully staged show of unity, the kind of public performance that follows a private session where you've just pointed the finger at the person you're now praising.
Despite her departure from the Justice Department, Bondi has remained within the president's orbit. She was appointed this week to a White House panel on artificial intelligence, a move noted by Breitbart that signals she retains the administration's confidence even as congressional investigators press her on the Epstein files.
The substance of what went wrong with the Epstein document release is not in dispute. The Justice Department released roughly 3.5 million documents, and approximately 7,000 of them were flagged for further review due to victim privacy concerns. Names and identifying information of abuse survivors were scattered throughout the release despite congressional requirements to redact them.
Bondi herself acknowledged the failures earlier this year. The New York Post reported in February 2026 that Bondi admitted mistakes were made, citing human errors, technical failures, and search limitations. The DOJ temporarily removed approximately 9,500 documents subject to protective orders in the Ghislaine Maxwell case.
Annie Farmer, an Epstein victim advocate, described the failures bluntly:
"If you see some of these documents where there will be a list of 50 names and one is redacted, you know, there's just no explanation for how it could have been done so poorly."
That is not the voice of a partisan critic. It is the voice of someone who was harmed and then harmed again by government carelessness.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, commenting on Bondi's willingness to be transparent, put it plainly: "I think she absolutely could clear up many missing pieces if she wanted to. Now it's a question of whether or not she is willing to be transparent."
The answer, based on Friday's performance, appears to be no.
The Epstein files mess has become a case study in diffused responsibility. Bondi says Blanche ran it. Blanche has denied the files had anything to do with Bondi's firing. Patel's name gets dropped into testimony like a deflection shield. And the victims, the people Congress said it wanted to protect, had their names exposed to the public because nobody at the Justice Department managed the process competently.
What we know is this: Bondi was attorney general. She issued the memo that ended the review. Current and former DOJ officials say she signed off on every major decision. And when she sat down with Congress, she told them someone else was in charge.
The appointment to a new White House panel suggests Bondi's political standing remains intact. But political standing and public accountability are different currencies. Survivors of Epstein's crimes are still waiting for someone in a position of authority to own what happened, not just admit "mistakes were made" in the passive voice, but explain who made them and why.
Garcia, for his part, has argued that Bondi's refusal to submit to a formal, video-recorded deposition "would present a grave injustice to the American people and survivors of Epstein's crimes." Whether the committee has the appetite to press harder remains an open question.
Conservatives rightly demanded transparency on the Epstein files. The public deserved to know what the government knew and when it knew it. But transparency without competence is just a different kind of failure. Victims' names got out. Documents were botched. And now the official who oversaw the process says she wasn't really overseeing it.
The Epstein case is not a partisan football. It is a test of whether the people who hold power will accept responsibility when the machinery they run fails the most vulnerable. Bondi had that chance Friday. She chose to pass.
When the person who signed the memo says she wasn't in charge, accountability doesn't have a home, and the people who were hurt are left standing outside it.