Bondi Testimony Part One

Mr. Jordan (01:36):

And we welcome everyone to today's hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Tiffany to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Mr. Tiffany (00:01:51):

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States ofAmerica and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mr. Jordan (00:02:07):

We'll begin with opening statements. The chairs nowrecognize 18 cities, 11 states, three counties and the District of Columbia aresanctuary jurisdictions, accounting for 31% of the population in this country.

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31% of the American people, almost one-third of theAmerican people live in a city, county, or state, where the left wingleadership tells local law enforcement not to work with federal lawenforcement.

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Now, what does that mean in practice? Let's look atAbraham Gonzalez, who on September 20th, 2023, was arrested by Border Patrolfor illegally entering the United States. And of course, the Bidenadministration released him into the country. Five months later, February 26th,2024, Mr. Gonzalez is charged with assault. Two weeks later, March 11th, 2024,he's charged with felony motor vehicle theft; stole a car. And on March 20th,2024, nine days later, he's arrested by the Denver Police and placed in the DenverJustice Center. Six days later, March 22nd, 2024, ICE sends a detainer noticeto the Denver Justice Center saying this. "If you're going to release Mr.Gonzalez, can you give us a heads up? Can you let us know maybe 48 hours beforeyou're going to release this guy so we can come apprehend him there at thejail?" And remember, a detainer's a final order of removal from a court,where this individual or this individual's committed some removable offense.But on February 28th, 2025, Abraham Gonzalez is released to the streets. Infact, we can put that up. I think you can see this. Released, we got the formfrom the Denver Justice Center.

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What kind of inmate was Mr. Gonzalez for those 345 daysthat he was in the Denver Justice Center? We have that too. Violent to thestaff. Keep separate. So this guy was so bad, you had to keep him away fromother inmates. He'd already assaulted some staff member, but Denver releasedthis guy to the streets and instead of turning over to ICE agents, who wouldhave come to the jail and arrested him there. And of course, we all know whathappens. When the officers did apprehend Mr. Gonzalez out on the street, heassaulted one of the officers.

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This is what happens when you have a sanctuaryjurisdiction. Right now in Minnesota, there are 1,360 detainer notices forviolent offenders. Governor Walz, and others, have released 470 criminalillegal aliens back to the streets.

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In New York State, it's 7,000. Nationwide, it's over17,000 that we know of, where a detainer was filed since President Trump's beenin office, over 17,000 times a detainer was filed and those individuals werereleased to the streets, instead of turned over to federal law enforcement.

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17,864 times. Illegals who've been charged with the crimehave been released, released to the streets, and thereby jeopardizing thesafety of the public, the safety of law enforcement, and of course the migrantthemselves. And frankly, helping create the environment that results in thetragic deaths like we saw with Ms. Goode and Mr. Pretti.

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A few years ago, Governor Sarah Huckaby Sanders said thisin response to the State of the Union address. She said, "The divide inAmerica today is normal versus crazy." And it's true, because it's crazynot to have a border, which is what we had under the previous administration.It's crazy to abolish ICE and it's crazy to release bad guys, who are hereillegally to the streets, when with one phone call, federal law enforcementwill come to the jail and pick them up.

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The mindset that says it's okay to release these guys isthe same left wing mindset that thinks it's okay to weaponize government,against your political opponents. And that is exactly what we had in theprevious Justice Department. The Biden-Harris Department of Justice calledparents domestic terrorists. The Biden-Harris Justice Department used FBI SWATteams to arrest pro-life advocates. The Biden-Harris DOJ targeted traditionalCatholics. The Biden-Harris DOJ pressured social media companies to censor Americansand the Biden-Harris Justice Department launched not one, but twoinvestigations into President Trump, spending over $35 million to try to bringdown their political opponent.

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To further this effort, they sought the phone records ofover a dozen Republican members of Congress. Even the Democrats said this waswrong. They got bank records for scores of White House officials. They evenpaid at least one confidential human source $20,000, for information onPresident Trump.

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And of course, while doing all this, they couldn't tell uswho planted the pipe bombs, who leaked the Dobbs opinion, and who put cocainein the White House. But thank goodness the American people saw through it all.Americans were tired of being targeted for their beliefs, tired of the lawfare,tired of the rampant crime throughout this country, and that's why theyoverwhelmingly elected President Trump. And what a difference a year makes.What a difference a year makes.

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Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to itscore missions; upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keepingAmericans safe. The Trump Justice Department has restored the rule of law.Murders are down nationwide by 20% and DC violent crime is down by 28%. Thefederal surge in DC ,resulted in 8,000 arrests, the seizure of 800 illegal gunsand the recovery of 16 missing kids.

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The Trump Justice Department apprehended a suspect in thepipe bomb investigation, and they've arrested six of the FBI's top 10 mostwanted fugitives in just one year. Of course, they arrested Narco terroristNicolás Maduro and they seized a record number of drugs flowing into thiscountry. Trump Justice Department put an into targeting Americans for theirbeliefs. Attorney General Bondi rescinded, Attorney General Garland'santi-parent memorandum. Department of Justice ended the practices of using theFACE Act to target pro-life Americans. They've refused to tolerate attacks onplaces of worship and investigations of traditional Catholics that we saw inthe previous administration. On her first day, Attorney General Bondi disbandedthe foreign influence task force, that was pressuring social media companies tocensor Americans. And the Trump Justice Department has ended lawfare.

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Under Attorney General Bondi, along with Director Patel,they've worked to expose the political nature of Arctic Frost and the JackSmith investigations. They've turned over hundred of pages of documents toCongress, and that's why we know, for example, that Mr. Smith paid at least$20,000 to some confidential human source. That's why we know, that Jack Smithknew it was unconstitutional seek to toll records from members. But since thelitigation risk was low, and because members would never find out about thesubpoena until years later, they charged ahead and violated the Constitution.

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The Trump Justice Department has changed DOJ policy torequire prosecutors to tell judges, if NDOs relate to members of the separateand equal branch of government; the Congress. And to top it all off, the TrumpJustice Department opened an investigation into the conspiracy behind theRussia collusion hoax. The Justice Department has put common sense ahead ofpolitics. They sued to keep boys out of girls sports. They secured deals withuniversities to stop race-based admissions and anti-Semitic practices. Andafter discovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, the Justice Department, underleadership of Attorney General Bondi, has established a new national frauddivision. In fact, I met with Colin McDonald who will head that division lastweek. I think he's going to do a great job.

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There's a lot of work to be done in that area, but I wantto thank the Attorney General for her great work. In the first year on the job,and I want to thank you for being here.

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With that, I would yield to the ranking member for anopening statement.

Mr. Raskin (00:10:08):

Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and welcome AttorneyGeneral Bondi. You've got the best lawyer's job in America because your missionis justice and your clients are the American people.

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But to promote justice for the people, you've got tolisten to the victims, like the women seated behind you today. Those are justsome of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's global sex traffickingring, who are demanding that the truth be told, and are demandingaccountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them.

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You still haven't met with these survivors. So with theirpermission, let me introduce to you the survivors and late survivors familymembers who are present today. There's Teresa Helm. There's Jess Michaels,Laura Bloom McGee, Dannie Bensky, Liz Stein, Marina Lacerda. Sky and AmandaRoberts, who are the family of the late Virginia Giuffre, Sharlene Rochard, andLisa Phillips. Now, you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, MadamAttorney General.

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Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring, or thehomicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, as AttorneyGeneral, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims.That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course.

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You're running a massive Epstein coverup, right out of theDepartment of Justice. You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress, to turnover six million documents, photographs, and videos in the Epstein files, butyou've turned over only three million. You say you're not turning over theother three million because they're somehow duplicative, but we know that thereare actual memos of victim statements in there, and you also took down theDepartment of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. So it's clearly not allduplicative, but even if it were, why not release it? Just release all theduplicative stuff.

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In the half you did produce, you redacted the names ofabusers, enablers, accomplices, and co-conspirators, apparently to spare them,embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law orderedyou to do.

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Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of thevictims' names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. Some of thevictims had come forward publicly, but many had not. Many had kept theirtorment private, even from family and friends, but you published their names,their identities, their images, on thousands of pages, for the world to see.

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So you ignored the law and even with over a hundredthousand employees at your disposal, you acted with some mixture of staggeringincompetence, cold indifference, and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000victims, raped, abused, and trafficked. This performance screams cover up.

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Convicted sex trafficker and groomer Ghislaine Maxwell,opened the gates of hell, to Virginia Giuffre, and hundreds of other victims asVirginia recorded in her remarkable book, "Nobody's Girl." But whenMaxwell was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress, you and Todd Blanche,quickly moved her from a higher security prison to a minimum security camp inTexas, where she's enjoyed five star treatment, including catered meals,private gym time, and access to a therapy puppy. All because Todd Blanche, who'sutterly failed to investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell'sco-conspirator, spent nine hours with Maxwell and satisfied himself, that shewould have nothing untoward to say about Donald Trump, which is your only realinterest in the matter based on institutional performance.

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But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators, is whatyou do best. When the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutalkilling in Minneapolis of Renée Good, a poet and 37-year-old mother of three byTrump's masked paramilitary ICE agents, you shut it down. You claim you'reinvestigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the VA.But how can we trust the administration when the President and Kristi Noem,called Pretti a domestic terrorist and Stephen Miller called him a would beassassin. Not only do you refuse to share evidence with the state and localinvestigators and prosecutors in Minnesota, you have blocked their access tothe crime scene and the evidence.

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How are you seeking justice for Marimar Martinez, theMontessori school teacher in Chicago, who was shot five times by a borderpatrol agent, who bragged about it on text. Or the family of Keith Porter, afather of two shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in LA or the family ofSilverio Villegas González, shot and killed in Illinois, minutes after he droppedhis kids off at school. There's no sign of any movement at the Department ofJustice.

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You even launched a criminal investigation into RenéeGood's grieving widow. How sick is that? But it's even worse, you've turned thepeople's Department of Justice, into Trump's instrument of revenge. Trumporders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time. He tells you togo after James Comey, Leticia James, Lisa Cook, and Jerome Powell, the head ofthe Federal Reserve Board. And members of Congress like Adam Schiff, MarkKelly, Elissa Slotkin, Chrissy Houlahan, Jason Crowe, Chris Deluzio and MaggieGoodlander, to name a few, and you snap to it. You replace real prosecutorswith counterfeit stooges who robotically do the president's bidding. Nothing inAmerican history comes close to this complete corruption of the justicefunction and contamination of federal law enforcement.

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The good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, includingsome of your own original appointees, have refused your lawless orders.Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting US Attorney Manhattan,resigned, rather than follow your corrupt order to quash an indictment againstMayor Eric Adams, as a political favor from Donald Trump.

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A federalist society member, who clerked for JusticeScalia, US Attorney Sassoon refused to participate in this blatantly corruptscheme. Her top assistant, Hagen Scotten, an Iraqi war vet and two-time BronzeStar recipient, who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, and then JudgeKavanaugh, promptly resigned too, writing to your office, "I expect youwill eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, tofile your motion, but it was never going to be me."

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You and the president nominated Erik Siebert, a 15-yearcareer prosecutor, to be your US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.But after five months of investigating Letitia James and James Comey, he foundno evidence to justify criminal charges. So you forced him out. You were placedhim with Lindsay Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mar-a-Lagodocuments case, who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications.And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corruptappointment was blatantly unlawful and threw out Halligan's indictmentsentirely.

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And grand juries of American citizens have repeatedlyrejected your vendettas and baseless indictments brought by the hacks, left atDOJ, now with two different grand juries in Virginia voting down indictmentsagainst Leticia James in a single week. And just yesterday, another grand juryshut down your vendetta factory, by rejecting indictments against the sixmembers of Congress, who had spoken out to remind all service members that theyhave a duty to refuse illegal orders. You tried to get a grand jury to indictsix members of Congress who are veterans of our armed forces, on charges ofseditious conspiracy, simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. Ihope you will heed the wisdom and the constitutional patriotism of those grandjurors and not try it again by doubling down on that humiliation.

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As your best lawyers are sacked for having participated inthe January 6th case, or just flee for the exits now, your new lawyers keeplying in court. In dozens of cases, they've been excoriated for lying tofederal judges.

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Chief Judge Boasberg, right here in DC, suggested yourDepartment of Justice perpetrated a fraud on the court. Other judges found yourstatements to be, "inexplicably misleading, patently incredible, totallyinconsistent, and so disingenuous that the court is left with little confidencethat the government can be trusted to tell the truth about anything."

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Now, as ranking member, I asked the chairman to add a fewextra rounds of questions today because we each have five hours of questions,not five minutes, but we're stuck with five minutes. That's clearlyinsufficient to give voice to America's victims and survivors and to demandanswers, about all the corruption and coverups that we see at DOJ right now.

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We've got just one round. So we ask you politely butfirmly, Madam Attorney General, please do not waste one second of our precioustime by evading questions, by changing the subject, or engaging in personalattacks against members of Congress. We saw your performance in the Senate andwe're not going to accept that. This isn't a game.

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In the Senate, you brought something with you called aBurn Book, a binder of smears to attack members personally, for doing thepeople's work of oversight. Please set the Burn Book aside and answer ourquestions. And when you hear us reclaim our time, that means it's time for youto stop speaking. We only have five minutes, so when we reclaim our time, thatmeans you stop. And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock andlet you go on his time.

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The quality of justice in America depends on the characterof our government. Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice backfrom the brink. The survivors seated behind you, and the American peoplewatching everywhere, deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. Iyield back, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Jordan (00:20:36):

Objection. All of the opening statements will be includedin the record.

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We will now introduce today's witness. The HonorablePamela J. Bondi has served as the Attorney General of the United States sinceFebruary 5th, 2025. She previously served in the office of the White HouseCouncil, two terms as the Florida Attorney General, and spent more than 18years as a prosecutor. We welcome our witness and thank her for appearingtoday. We will begin by swearing you in.

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Would you please rise and raise your right hand?

Honorable Pamela J. Bondi (00:21:03):

Yes.

Mr. Jordan (00:21:05):

Do you swear, or affirm under penalty of perjury, that thetestimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best of yourknowledge, information, and beliefs so help you God?

Honorable Pamela J. Bondi (00:21:13):

I do.

Mr. Jordan (00:21:13):

Let the record show that the witness has answered in theaffirmative. Thank you. You can be seated. And please know that your writtentestimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. Accordingly, we askthat you summarize your testimony.

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Madam Attorney General, you may begin.

Honorable Pamela J. Bondi (00:21:27):

Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Jordan, ranking MemberRaskin and distinguished members of this committee. Thank you for hosting mehere today. I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer your questions,highlight the work of our department, and discuss the most important topic ofall, keeping the American people safe.

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A little over a year ago, I was sworn into office as the87th Attorney General of the United States. I came into office with a goal ofrefocusing the Department of Justice on its core mission, after years ofbloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.

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The Department of Justice's core mission is to fightviolent crime, protect the American people, and defend the rule of law, aboveall else. While our work is never done, we have made tremendous progress tomake America safe again.

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In 2025, we saw the lowest murder rate in 125 years.That's nothing short of historic. If you compare 25 to 24, here's what you'llfind. The murder rate is down 21%, robbery down 23%, carjacking down 43%, gunassault down 22%. Ag assault, burglary, could go on and on. Crime is declining.This did not happen by accident. The numbers tell an important, yetstraightforward story. President Trump has given us the resources, the support,and the leadership to protect the American people. President Trump's policieshave saved lives. I cannot think of a policy outcome more important thanprotecting the lives of American citizens. Can you?

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This trend has been especially clear in Washington DC andin Memphis. These are two iconic American cities that spent years in the gripof horrific violent crime. The Department of Justice surged law enforcementresources and the results came quickly. Crime plummeted in both cities. And Iwant to make one point loud and clear. We achieved those results by workingwith Democratic mayors.

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Public safety does not have a party registration. Whenyour constituents call 911, they don't ask for political views of theresponding officer. They ask for help. I have federal agents in each and everyone of your districts. They're here to help and I am here to help. Many citiesand states have worked with us and taken advantage of our federal support.Some, have not. Meanwhile, a few elected officials have declared that they are"at war" with the federal government and encouraged widespreadobstruction of law enforcement. This has resulted in avoidable clashes on thestreets, as you've all seen.

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We've seen rioters storming a Christian church. Citizensand law enforcement officers have both been endangered by reckless rhetoric. Wehave made dozens of arrests, in and around Minneapolis so far, and many of themcould have been avoided by simple compliance with federal law. Of course, ourefforts reach beyond our urban centers.

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We are striking crucial blows against terroristorganizations such as MS-13, TDA, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Antifa. And as we sithere, I think you've seen the news this morning. The news is reporting thatcartel drones are being shot down by our military. That's what we all shouldcare about right now; protecting America.

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As we seek to dismantle these drug trafficking networksthat poison Americans, in 2025, our DEA agent seized more than 47 millionfentanyl pills and more than 9,800 total kilos of fentanyl. That represents 369million, potentially deadly doses, that can kill Americans.

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Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for PresidentTrump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. This administration has beensued 627 times. We've fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith, temporaryrestraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. Americahas never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards apresidential administration. It is not only an unlawful attack on the executivebranch's authority, but a serious attack on the Democratic process.

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In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we'veattained 24 favorable rulings at the US Supreme Court, their emergency docket,and even more to come. We've done so while ending the weaponization of theprior administration, by dropping FACE Act prosecutions, exposing the ArcticFrost scandal, via congressional disclosure. Thank you, Chairman. And restoringone tier of justice in this country.

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To address the Epstein files. More than 500 attorneys andreviewers spent thousands of hours, painstakingly, reviewing millions of pages,to comply with Congress's law. We've released more than three million pages,including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in thetimeframe allotted by the legislation, to protect victims. And if you broughtus a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it.

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All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visitDOJ, to see for yourselves. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epsteinsurvivors who are here today. I'm a career prosecutor, and despite what theranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and Iwill continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim, hasbeen through, especially as a result of that monster.

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If you have any information to share with law enforcementabout anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear fromyou. I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing, will betaken seriously and investigated. The Department of Justice is committed toholding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

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In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1,700 child predators, a10% increase from 2024. We also located 2,700 victims of child exploitation andshut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts; 3.8 million. So please, ifyou have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI.

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Today, I look forward to discussing further our sharedobligation to protect the American people, uphold the rule of law, and keepthis nation safe. Thank you.

Mr. Jordan (00:29:58):

Thank you, Madam Attorney General. We now proceed underthe five-minute rule. The chair recognizes the gentleman from California forfive minutes.

Mr. Issa (00:30:05):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks,particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible over theyears in the Epstein debacle.

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Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civilrights, between criminal, between so called white collar crime. And doing so,as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the President are underattack and our ICE agents and FBI and others are under attack when they try toenforce the law, I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden,support, or even stand with those lawbreakers, that sit on this and other daishere in Congress.

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My job, generally is to talk about patents and trademarks,as the chairman of that subcommittee. I'll forego that today because one of myother jobs is the creation and maintenance of Article Three judges. And I workwith the Chief Justice on that, and we're trying to expand the court.

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But currently, there are only 677 district court judges.They have very full dockets as well. But you create a tremendous amount ofjudges, particularly immigration judges. You do so in order to save the courtthat, but adjudicate, as is requirement, each of those people who claim a rightto be here in the United States. And that has been going on under Republicanand Democratic administrations for years.

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What's unique about the Trump administration this time, isthat you and President Trump have managed to

Mr. Issa (00:32:00):

... reduce the backlog of people seeking that for thefirst time in decades. You are getting ahead of that tremendous backlog thatcaused, for better or worse, the release of millions of people with littlepieces of paper saying, "Come back later when we call you," andoften, to no avail, when you call. So I want to congratulate you on that,because it's an accomplishment you might not take credit for, and the otherside would never give you credit for. But I hope you can continue to do that anddo more, and I say so for a reason. Because much of this hearing will be aboutMinneapolis and other places in which the backlog of criminal aliens, includingin my home state of California, people who have hurt other people, who peoplewho have victimized their communities, is extensive.

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And although the overall number through adjudication maybe going on, because of places like my home state, California, you're unable toapprehend people that my sheriffs want apprehended. They desperately want tocooperate, and they're prohibited by law. It is this committee's opinion onthis side of the aisle, that in fact, you should be given the ability to demandthat participation, and that the release of a known criminal not be consideredto be acceptable just because a state or city has declared itself a sanctuary.

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I want you to opine on just one thing that I think hasbeen misunderstood. As I said earlier, you create and maintain those judgesthat adjudicate these cases. You also support so many that, in fact, have tomake decisions as judges. Knowing that this limitation of so few Article IIIjudges are there, please educate those who seem to miss the point that ArticleI judges, including bankruptcy judges, including immigration judges, includinglots of people with the title appropriately judge, do in fact issue documentsthat look like, act like, and are normally accepted as warrants, as subpoenas,as demands for state officials to stand aside and allow the production ofeither an individual or documents. Because I think, people are missing thepoint that these ICE retainers and detainers and so on, they act like they'renothing when, in fact, in the ordinary course...

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And Madam General, you do, in fact, have Article I judgesconstantly putting those out, and they are respected normally.

Pam Bondi (00:34:54):

Yes. Thank you, Congressman, for talking about all thegreat judges. And if I could add one thing to that, we are always recruitingand looking for judges. So, please reach out to our office for these judges whoare handling all these very important matters. We've even added some JAGofficers as immigration judges.

Mr. Issa (00:35:19):

Thank you.

Pam Bondi (00:35:20):

And so we're continuing to do that, but we're alwaysseeking qualified lawyers as well to be part of that. And thank you forhighlighting that, Congressman.

Mr. Issa (00:35:30):

Thank you. I yield back.

Jim Jordan (00:35:31):

The Gentleman yields back. The Gentle Lady fromWashington's recognized.

Pramila Jayapal (00:35:34):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Attorney GeneralBondi, right here. We are joined in this room by some of the thousands ofsurvivors from Jeffrey Epstein's horrific sex trafficking ring. They have shownsuch incredible courage in speaking out, in demanding accountability to bringthe predators and pedophiles to justice. The Epstein Files Transparency Actrequired your Department of Justice to disclose the perpetrators connected withEpstein's criminal activities, and to redact the information of survivors toprotect their identities.

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Let me show you what actually happened. First, inviolation of the law, your department has shown a pattern of redacting thenames of powerful predators. Here, behind me, is one example of an email fromEpstein to a man whose name was redacted. The email reads, "Where are you?Are you okay? I loved the torture video." Only after members of Congressdemanded that we see the unredacted files did the world learn the name of thisindividual, Sultan Almed bin Sulayem, the chairman and CEO of a company thathad financial ties to President Trump's business, and personal ties to Trump'sadvisor, Steve Bannon.

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Second, the survivors were not similarly protected, alsoin violation of the law. Here is another email titled Epstein Victim List. Wehave blurred the names of the survivors for their protection, but yourDepartment of Justice initially released this list of 32 survivors' names withonly one name redacted, along with numerous files that disclose not only thenames, the emails, and the addresses of survivors, but also nude photographs,and even the identities of Jane Does who had been protected for decades untilyour department released their names. Survivors are now telling us that theirfamilies are finding out for the first time that they were trafficked byEpstein. In their words, "This release does not provide closure. It feelslike a deliberate attempt to intimidate survivors, punish those who cameforward, and reinforce the same culture of secrecy that allowed Epstein'scrimes to continue for decades." To the survivors in the room, if you arewilling, please stand. And if you are willing, please raise your hands if youhave still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice. Please knowfor the record that every single survivor has raised their hand.

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Attorney General Bondi, you apologize to the survivors inyour opening statement for what they went through at the hands of JeffreyEpstein. Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department ofJustice has put them through with the unabsolutely unacceptable release of theEpstein files and their information?

Pam Bondi (00:39:12):

Congresswoman, you sat before... Merrick Garland sat inthis chair twice.

Pramila Jayapal (00:39:19):

Attorney General Bondi, I'm going to-

Pam Bondi (00:39:20):

Twice. No. Can I finish my answer?

Pramila Jayapal (00:39:22):

No, I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked youspecific question that I would like you to answer.

Jim Jordan (00:39:29):

The Attorney General [inaudible 00:39:30]-

(00:39:29):

Attorney General can respond to the question.

Pramila Jayapal (00:39:30):

Which is, will you turn to the survivors? This is notabout anybody that came before you. It is about you taking responsibility foryour Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors whoare standing right behind you, and are waiting for you to turn to them andapologize for what your Department of Justice has done.

Jim Jordan (00:39:53):

Members get to ask the questions, the witness gets toanswer in the way they want to answer that. Attorney General can respond.

Pramila Jayapal (00:39:58):

That's not accurate, Mr. Chairman. It is my time.

Pam Bondi (00:40:00):

Because she doesn't like the answer.

Pramila Jayapal (00:40:03):

Mr. Chairman, I have asked a question.

Pam Bondi (00:40:06):

So why didn't she asked Merrick Garland this twice when hesat in my chair?

Pramila Jayapal (00:40:08):

I'm reclaiming my time. And when I reclaim my time, it ismy time.

Pam Bondi (00:40:12):

I will continue to answer.

Andy Biggs (00:40:12):

I know. So Chairman, please reclaim the time.

Pam Bondi (00:40:14):

I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics.

Jim Jordan (00:40:17):

The time belongs to the Gentle Lady. The Gentle Lady has17 seconds.

Pramila Jayapal (00:40:20):

Thank you. You're not going to answer this question, solet me just say this: what a massive cover up.

Pam Bondi (00:40:24):

Chairman, I'll direct it to you.

(00:40:28):

No, I'm answering the question.

Andy Biggs (00:40:28):

Chairman, you restore her time. The witness isinterrupting.

Pam Bondi (00:40:29):

I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman. She'sdoing theatrics.

Pramila Jayapal (00:40:33):

Stop the time. Stop the time, and let me have my time.

Jim Jordan (00:40:34):

The Gentle Lady from Washington controls the time. TheGentle Lady has 17 seconds. You can proceed with your final 17 seconds.

Pramila Jayapal (00:40:41):

Thank you. What a massive cover up this has been, andcontinues to be. Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein files the centerof his political campaign because he thought it would benefit him. Then you gotinto office, Attorney General, claimed to have a client list. Only to then say-

Andy Biggs (00:40:56):

Regular order.

Pramila Jayapal (00:40:56):

... that there was no list. Your deputy, Todd Blanche, metalone with Ghislaine Maxwell, and transferred her to a minimum security prison.

Jim Jordan (00:41:03):

The time of the Gentle Lady has expired.

Pramila Jayapal (00:41:05):

And now, you continue the cover up.

Jim Jordan (00:41:09):

The time of the Gentle Lady has expired.

Pramila Jayapal (00:41:10):

And I wish that you would turn around to the survivors whoare standing right behind you, and on a human level, apologize to them on whatyou have done.

Pam Bondi (00:41:18):

Chairman, [inaudible 00:41:18]. Unprofessional.

Jim Jordan (00:41:18):

Chair now recognizes the Gentleman-

(00:41:21):

Time of the Gentle Lady has expired. The Gentle Lady-

Pramila Jayapal (00:41:23):

I yield back.

Pam Bondi (00:41:23):

Theatrics.

Jim Jordan (00:41:23):

You have no time to yield back, but we appreciate that. Weappreciate the thought. And I would argue the central issue in the lastelection, the presidential election, was securing the border. The Gentlemanfrom Arizona, who knows something about securing the border, is up for fiveminutes.

Andy Biggs (00:41:38):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Attorney GeneralBondi, for being here today. In 2022, Lafarge, which is a French cementcompany, pled guilty in US federal court to participating in a criminalconspiracy with ISIS. That conspiracy contributed to the deaths of US servicemembers fighting in Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve. As part of theplea agreement, Lafarge was required to pay more than $775 million to DOJ'sasset forfeiture fund.

(00:42:08):

In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter,urging the department to review the petitions for a mission submitted by thefamilies of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents.The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests, and lefttheir petitions unresolved. My question for you on this particular issue is ifyou're willing to work to ensure those families, that their petitions will bereviewed and brought to a resolution.

Pam Bondi (00:42:36):

Congressman, we are aware of that, and we're committed todoing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. Thank you forthat question.

Andy Biggs (00:42:44):

Yeah, appreciate your answer. And now, let's go tosomething that is also pressing, that I've been working on for years, and thisis the FISA Section 702 and Arctic Frost. In January 2025, you testified beforethe US Senate, and agreed with Senator Lee, that, " Anytime an Americancitizen's private communications are intercepted or stored, whether throughincidental collection or otherwise, those communications should not be searchedwithout some showing of probable cause."

(00:43:11):

You still hold that view today, I assume?

Pam Bondi (00:43:15):

Yes.

Andy Biggs (00:43:16):

And during the most recent FISA reauthorization, I offeredan amendment to establish a clear warrant requirement for searches ofAmericans' data, while preserving every publicly cited operational exception,including emergencies, defensive queries, cybersecurity threats. And my intentwas to ensure the Department of Justice could continue to keep Americans safewhile also ending warrantless searches of US persons' data.

(00:43:42):

Are there any additional circumstances or exceptions thatyou believe must be included to ensure DOJ can continue to operate effectivelywhile still protecting American citizens' data and privacy?

Pam Bondi (00:43:55):

Yeah. Congressman, we are committed to working withCongress to uncover weaponization and other misconduct by Jack Smith, byothers, Arctic Frost, everything that happened under the past administration.We are committed to working with you on that. And we are working with ChairmanJordan, with the House Intel, with all of my fellow cabinet members, onresolving that issue.

Andy Biggs (00:44:24):

Thank you. And I'm glad you brought up Arctic Frost,because Section 702 was used in the Arctic Frost investigation.

Pam Bondi (00:44:31):

It was.

Andy Biggs (00:44:32):

And information derived was used by Special Counsel JackSmith. And my question has always been, and no one's been able to answer this,is what was the legal predicate for using a foreign intelligence authority inthe Arctic Frost investigation? Have you been able to ascertain any legalpredicate?

Pam Bondi (00:44:53):

Congressman, what I can tell you today is that has beenreferred to my office. I can't discuss anything regarding that because it isvery active and ongoing.

Andy Biggs (00:45:05):

And you probably can't answer this one either, but Ireally want to know if Section 702 queries related to that matter involvedmembers of Congress, which we know, on some level, it did. Congressional staff,which we know, at some level, did. We've heard that journalists or other USpersons not suspecting of acting as foreign agents were also caught up in that.

(00:45:23):

Can you answer that question, and say whether queries didcover all those groups I just identified?

Pam Bondi (00:45:31):

It is a very active, pending investigation within myoffice. However, I believe many members of Congress have stated that theirphones were part of Arctic Frost. We are well aware of that. And we are takingthis very seriously, and this is a very active investigation. And I would keepgoing and say if any member of the Democrat Party, if any of them, if that hadhappened to them, we would take that just as serious as we do. And they shouldbe jumping up and down, screaming, supporting you and what you want to do,because this should be a bipartisan issue.

Andy Biggs (00:46:13):

Well, I hope it is a bipartisan issue. And I'll just leavewith these last couple of questions, which I'm sure fall into the sameinvestigation privilege. But that's this: how many such queries were actuallyconducted overall? This is outside of Arctic Frost in the prior year by the FBIor other intelligence community. And particularly, we really need to know whatwere these legal standards applied? Did they use probable cause? Did they usereasonable, articulable suspicion, or did they have no individualized suspicionand just were gathering up information? And that's beyond the investigationwith regarding Arctic Frost.

(00:46:52):

I don't expect you to have that information today, but ifyou can help get that information so we can understand the extensive nature ofthis continued misuse of 702, it would be very particularly helpful.

Pam Bondi (00:47:05):

And it was extensive, yes, Congressman. Thank you.

Andy Biggs (00:47:08):

Thank you.

Jim Jordan (00:47:08):

Time of the Gentleman has expired.

Speaker 1 (00:47:09):

I have a UC, Mr. Chairman.

Jim Jordan (00:47:12):

And that is the Gentle Lady from Texas.

Speaker 1 (00:47:14):

I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record. El Pasoairspace reopened after FAA quickly rescinds 10-day flights restriction. Thiswas published by The Texas Tribune on February 11th, 2026. And it says it wasbecause of an impasse with the DoD over the use of unnamed military aircraft,and not triggered by Mexican cartel drones.

Jim Jordan (00:47:36):

It's not an objection. Not an objection. Withoutobjection. Not objection.

Speaker 2 (00:47:38):

Point of order, Mr. Chairman, I didn't hear back about thesecond round of questions. I assume that's not happening. I just want to beable to assure the members, certainly on my side, if not both sides, that-

Jim Jordan (00:47:50):

That's not a point of order.

Speaker 2 (00:47:50):

That every member will get five minutes with the witness.

Jim Jordan (00:47:53):

It's the question you had.

Speaker 2 (00:47:54):

Will there be five minutes for each?

Jim Jordan (00:47:55):

Yeah, you get five minutes.

Speaker 2 (00:47:57):

With the witness.

Jim Jordan (00:47:58):

Yeah,

Speaker 2 (00:47:58):

Okay, very good.

Jim Jordan (00:47:59):

Okay. And are you up next? Gentleman from New York isrecognized.

Jerry Nadler (00:48:05):

Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by acknowledging thesurvivors of Jeffrey Epstein's horrific abuse, who are in the room with ustoday. I want to thank all of you for your bravery in speaking out. I want tosay that you and the other survivors of these heinous crimes deserve betterfrom this Department of Justice. In particular, it is shocking that thedepartment did not redact the names of Epstein's victims, but it did redact thenames of their abusers. I don't know whether this was done out of incompetenceor whether it was deliberate and malicious, but either way, it is completelyunacceptable. Even more troubling, the DOJ has failed to bring any of theseperpetrators to justice. Instead, it has engaged in a relentless pursuit ofDonald Trump's perceived enemies.

(00:48:50):

I want to focus on just one example: the Attorney Generalof my home state of New York, Tish James. This DOJ has been hell-bent onsecuring an indictment against Ms. James for something, anything, simplybecause she held Donald Trump's companies accountable for years of financialfraud. And indeed, the department manufactured an investigation against her foralleged "mortgage fraud." But the US attorney leading theinvestigation, Eric Siebert, a Trump appointee, refused to bring charges againstMs. James because there was simply no evidence. Unfortunately, a prosecutor whorefuses to do Trump's bidding has no place in this DOJ, so Mr. Siebert wasforced out. Trump could not contain his fury. Fury that he expressed to you ina social media post addressed to you by name. I'm sure you've seen it. "Ifired him, and there was a great case he wrote to you about Mr. Siebert. Thenwe moved down. We can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation andcredibility. They impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing.Justice must be served now." And obviously, you followed that order.

(00:50:02):

Lindsey Halligan, Trump's former defense lawyer who hadnever prosecuted a case in her life, was installed to replace Mr. Siebert, andit was clear that part of her mandate was to go after Ms. James. Halliganimmediately saw an indictment, which the court dismissed because Halligan wasillegally put into the role. But your department was undeterred. And not once,but twice, you tried to indict Attorney General James in separate courts. Bothgrand juries rejected you and refused to indict her. It is practically unheardof for a grand jury to refuse an indictment. In 2016, it happened in just 6cases out of over 150,000 offenses. And you had happened twice in the same weekin two different courts. That must have been humiliating. And now, there arereports you are continuing to investigate her.

(00:50:53):

The amount of resources that have gone into targetingAttorney General James, months of investigations, multiple failed indictmentsis astounding. Since your own prosecutors told you that there is not enoughevidence to support a conviction, it's clear that you are going after hersimply because she held President Trump accountable, and he wants to punishher. And she is just one name on a long list of Trump political enemies thatDOJ is reportedly targeting. From Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserveto James Comey, numerous Democratic members of Congress, John Brennan, JackSmith, Democratic officials of Minnesota, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylor, and more.And those are just the ones we know about. In contrast to these politicallymotivated investigations, grasping at something they can charge their enemieswith, we now have concrete evidence of disgusting criminality revealed in theEpstein files.

(00:51:46):

So, I really have just one question for you. How many ofEpstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? How many perpetrators are you eveninvestigating?

Pam Bondi (00:52:03):

First, you showed it. I find it-

Jerry Nadler (00:52:06):

How many have you indicted?

Pam Bondi (00:52:07):

Excuse me. I'm going to answer the question.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:10):

Answer my question. How-

Pam Bondi (00:52:11):

No, I'm going to answer the question the way I want toanswer the question. Your theatrics are ridiculous.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:14):

No, you answer the question the way I asked you. How manyhave you indicted? How many have you-

Pam Bondi (00:52:16):

Chairman Jordan, I'm not going to get in the gutter withthese people, but I'm going to answer the question.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:20):

How many have you indicted?

Jim Jordan (00:52:21):

Again, the time belongs to-

Jerry Nadler (00:52:22):

Reclaiming my time.

Jim Jordan (00:52:22):

The time belong-

Pam Bondi (00:52:24):

I think it's very interesting.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:25):

Reclaiming my time.

Pam Bondi (00:52:26):

I think it's very interesting that he talks about theyindicted... The president said they indicted him twice. They sure did.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:32):

Reclaiming my time.

Jim Jordan (00:52:32):

You can reclaim your time.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:32):

Reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman. Pause the clock[inaudible 00:52:33].

Andy Biggs (00:52:33):

Mr. Chairman, please stop the clock and restore his time.

Pam Bondi (00:52:33):

And he indicted... Oh, okay. Here we go with thesetheatrics.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:33):

Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time and [inaudible00:52:38], please.

Jim Jordan (00:52:39):

[inaudible 00:52:37] The time belong to the Gentleman fromNew York. We will give you a few more seconds. We will do that.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:42):

Reclaiming my-

Jim Jordan (00:52:43):

But when you ask a question, the witness gets to-

Jerry Nadler (00:52:45):

The question was-

Jim Jordan (00:52:46):

You may not like the answer, but she gets to answer.

Pam Bondi (00:52:48):

Right.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:48):

The question was, how many of Epstein-

Pam Bondi (00:52:50):

They don't like the answer, Chairman, because it's honest.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:54):

Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my-

Pam Bondi (00:52:57):

So he asked a four-minute question, and I am going toanswer.

Jerry Nadler (00:52:57):

Reclaiming my time.

Andy Biggs (00:52:57):

Restore 45 seconds to Mr. Nadler, please, Mr. Chairman.You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch.

Jerry Nadler (00:53:04):

Reclaiming-

Andy Biggs (00:53:04):

Not on our time. No way.

Jerry Nadler (00:53:06):

Reclaiming-

Andy Biggs (00:53:07):

And I told you about that, Attorney General, before youstarted.

Pam Bondi (00:53:09):

You don't tell me anything, you washed up.

Andy Biggs (00:53:11):

Yeah. Oh, I did tell you because we saw what you did inthe Senate.

Pam Bondi (00:53:13):

[inaudible 00:53:13] lawyer. Not even a lawyer.

Jim Jordan (00:53:14):

Committee will be in order.

Jerry Nadler (00:53:16):

Reclaiming my time, and I should get back at least 45seconds.

Jim Jordan (00:53:17):

We will give you a few more seconds, I said that already.

Jerry Nadler (00:53:20):

Not a few. Forty-five seconds.

Jim Jordan (00:53:21):

Okay. I'm timing right now, Mr. Nadler. Go ahead.

Pam Bondi (00:53:23):

All right.

Jerry Nadler (00:53:23):

Reclaiming my time. The answer to my question, how many ofEpstein's co-conspirators has she indicted, is zero. You have been the attorneygeneral for a whole year. And your DOJ fired the lead prosecutor of this case,sat on evidence this entire time, and claimed falsely, last July, that therewere no more leads. It took an act of Congress for you to finally release partof the Epstein files. And when you did, you included personal information aboutthe victims, while protecting the names of abusers.

Jim Jordan (00:53:52):

Time of the Gentleman has expired.

Jerry Nadler (00:53:53):

None of the perpetrators have been brought to justice, butenormous resources dedicated [inaudible 00:53:58].

Jim Jordan (00:53:57):

The time of the Gentleman has expired. And obviously-

Jerry Nadler (00:54:00):

It's clear that under your leadership, the Department ofJustice no longer works for the American people. It works for Donald Trump.

Jim Jordan (00:54:03):

There was no question in there. Order respond to.

Jerry Nadler (00:54:06):

I yield back.

Jim Jordan (00:54:06):

The Gentleman yields back.

Pam Bondi (00:54:10):

May I answer?

Jim Jordan (00:54:11):

I think our next questioner, Madam Attorney General, isgoing to give you time to respond to all kinds of things.

Pam Bondi (00:54:17):

Thank you, Chairman.

Jim Jordan (00:54:17):

So, we will turn to the Gentleman from Texas for fiveminutes.

Lance Gooden (00:54:20):

Ms. Bondi, you go right ahead. I'm over here. The time isyours.

Pam Bondi (00:54:26):

Thank you. First, he brought up the president saying theyindicted me twice. They sure did. They tried to impeach him twice. And you, Mr.Nadler, were one of the leads on the impeachment. I was on the other side. Ilived that with you. During impeachment, you said the president conspired,sought foreign interference in the 2016 election. Robert Mueller found noevidence, none, of foreign interference in 2016. Have you apologized toPresident Trump? Have you apologized to President Trump, all of you who participatedin those impeachment hearings against Donald Trump? You all should beapologizing. You sit here and you attack the president, and I am not going tohave it. I'm not going to put up with it. All they want to do, all the...

(00:55:15):

The American people need to know this. They are talkingabout Epstein today. This has been around since the Obama administration. Thisadministration released over 3 million pages of documents. Over 3 million. AndDonald Trump signed that law to release all of those documents. He is the mosttransparent president in the nation's history. And none of them, none of them,ask Merrick Garland over the last four years one word about Jeffrey Epstein.How ironic is that? You know why? Because Donald Trump, the Dow, the Dow rightnow is over. The Dow is over $50,000.

(00:56:04):

I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stocktrader, as I hear, Raskin. The Dow is over 50,000 right now. The S&P? Atalmost 7,000. And the NASDAQ? Smashing records. Americans' 401(k)s andretirement savings are booming. That's what we should be talking about. Weshould be talking about making Americans safe. We should be talking about...What does a Dow have to do with anything? That's what they just asked. Are youkidding?

Lance Gooden (00:56:36):

Mr. Jordan, am I-

Pam Bondi (00:56:37):

Are you?

Lance Gooden (00:56:37):

Mr. Jordan.

Jim Jordan (00:56:38):

Committee will be in order.

Lance Gooden (00:56:40):

Mr. Jordan, am I going to get an extra 45 seconds added tomy time?

Jim Jordan (00:56:44):

The committee will be in order. The time belongs to theGentleman from Texas. The Attorney General can respond.

Pam Bondi (00:56:51):

Thank you. The Dow has shattered 50,000 for the firsttime. This is crazy. They said it couldn't be done in four years, yet PresidentTrump has done it in one year. National median rents have fallen to a four-yearlow, thanks to Donald Trump. That's why they want to focus on Epstein and ourmost transparent president in the nation's history. The murder rate, as I said,has plummeted to 125-year low, thanks to Donald Trump. For an unprecedentednine straight months, there were zero illegal border crossings at the southernborder. That's what we should be focused on. All the great work that thispresident has done and will continue to do to keep America safe and to makeAmericans safe.

Lance Gooden (00:57:57):

Thank you, Attorney General Bondi. I agree with youtotally. I think you've done a fine job. I think that Democrats, in fact,should be apologizing to the Epstein victims for doing nothing during the fouryears that they were running the government. We did not hear about this. And ittook you and President Trump to finally provide transparency and give answersto the American people, and I want to thank you for that. I want to thank youalso for standing up for truth today, and for fighting back against thetheatrics, and the time waste that you will endure over the next hour or two. Iwant to apologize on behalf of my colleagues on the left. They're not all thatbad, but they've got to put on a show. And I'm sorry that you have to gothrough that. And I would like to yield the last, I'd say... 40 and 40 is 80seconds. The clock says 40, but I've got 80 seconds, since I was so rudelyinterrupted. And I'll give all 80 seconds to Chairman Jordan.

Jim Jordan (00:58:49):

And I would just yield to the Attorney General if she hasanything to add.

Pam Bondi (00:58:57):

I'm fine to continue. Thank you, Chairman.

Jim Jordan (00:59:00):

Okay. All right. The Gentleman yields back. The Chairrecognizes the Gentle Lady from California.

Zoe Lofgren (00:59:04):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would note that Mr. Nadler'squestion has not yet been answered. But I want to start by asking that out ofrespect for the American public and the Epstein survivors, some of whom, ofcourse, are here today, that we can have a transparent conversation and get thepublic the answers they deserve. I want to briefly direct your attention to twodocuments I'm hoping we will put up on the screen. In the first, an individualemails Jeffrey Epstein, asking whether a woman identified as M was pro orcivilian. And Epstein responds that she was a civilian, Russian, and fun. Inthe second email, Epstein writes to Steve Tisch about a Ukrainian girl, notingthat she was "a little freaked out by the age difference," andstating that he would try to convince her not to return to Ukraine. He theninstructs Mr. Tisch to call him, adding, "I don't like records of theseconversations."

(01:00:07):

So, I'd like to ask a straightforward question that reallyis either a yes-or-no answer. Do these emails constitute credible evidence, notproof, but credible evidence warning further investigation into whether SteveTisch was involved in Epstein's criminal conduct? Do you think yes or no?

Pam Bondi (01:00:30):

I'm not going to play a yes-no game with you, but I willanswer the question to the best of my ability. As I said, we will look andinvestigate any case involving any victim. I'm not familiar, there were 3million pages, of course, with that email. But of course, we will look intoanything. The documents have been released, 3 million. The redacted versions,we left them open for all of you to come view. I believe you view them. If not,you have some copies.

Zoe Lofgren (01:00:58):

I'd like to-

Pam Bondi (01:00:59):

Could I finish, please? I'm not being rude. Please.

Zoe Lofgren (01:01:01):

I only have five minutes.

Pam Bondi (01:01:03):

No. Yeah, and I only have 30 seconds based on yourfilibuster.

Zoe Lofgren (01:01:06):

Well, you didn't... You have a yes or no answer, so let mejust go further.

Jim Jordan (01:01:11):

Time [inaudible 01:01:11] to Gentle Lady from California.

Zoe Lofgren (01:01:11):

Director Patel testified in this committee room that therewas no credible information indicating that Epstein trafficked victims toanyone else. And glancing at the documents, that's proofs. That's not the case.In July, your department issued a memo, stating that it had conducted anexhaustive review of the Epstein files and concluded that no additionalindividuals would be charged. So, I did go over to the Department of Justiceyesterday.

Pam Bondi (01:01:42):

Good.

Zoe Lofgren (01:01:42):

I would know that our 35 members are in the House, andthere's four computers. So, it would take many months to actually have thetime. I only had a few hours. I think the transparency argument is really asham because it's not really possible-

Pam Bondi (01:02:01):

Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you have to wait to get acomputer?

Jim Jordan (01:02:02):

No. Hang on.

Zoe Lofgren (01:02:03):

It is not possible to really go in. I did, however, see aUS attorney information for the southern district of New York, indicating thatthere were additional survivors, and probable co-conspirators. Other members ofCongress have uncovered likely co-conspirators whose names were blocked out.Now, the Epstein File Transparency Act, which all but one member of this Housevoted for, and the president signed, requires the department to releaseeverything, except that it needs to be redacted to protect the victims or anongoing prosecution. Which, apparently, there is none from the testimony wehave received. I am concerned that this act has not been fully complied with.When Director Patel came to the committee, he admitted that up to a thousandFBI agents had gone through the files and redacted President Trump's name fromthem. And it's pretty clear that what has been transmitted from the FBIcontinues to redact President Trump's name, even though he is mentionedthousands of times in these files. So, I think the credibility of thedepartment in terms of complying with the act has been damaged. And I think thedepartment's credibility has been damaged in other ways. I think we all saw thehorrible video of American citizens being killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis.And I think how the department has handled these cases raises a lot of doubtabout the department. State and local police in Minnesota got a court order toget access to the crime scene, to be sure evidence would be properly preservedby federal agents. But they took... The agents defied the court order.

Zoe Lofgren (01:04:00):

... And in a departure from general policy, the DOJ is notcollaborating with state and local law enforcement on these homicides.

(01:04:11):

So I really think that is a disgraceful approach to thehomicides of American citizens and really does nothing to bring credit to yourdepartment.

(01:04:22):

And Mr. Chairman, I would yield back.

Mr. Jordan (01:04:24):

Gentlelady yields back.

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:25):

May I answer?

Mr. Jordan (01:04:26):

Attorney General can respond.

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:27):

I find it interesting that she keeps going after PresidentTrump, the greatest president in American history.

(01:04:32):

And if they could maintain their composure. This isn't acircus, this is a hearing.

(01:04:38):

I find it interesting she keeps going after Donald Trump.She doesn't say how much money she took from Reid Hoffman, did you?

Zoe Lofgren (01:04:44):

None.

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:45):

And nor did she post anything-

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):

Mr. Chairman, regular order, please. Regular order.

Mr. Jordan (01:04:49):

Gentle-

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:49):

She posted nothing on her X account-

Mr. Jordan (01:04:51):

Gentlelady-

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:52):

... on her Twitter account during the Biden years.

Mr. Jordan (01:04:54):

Gentlelady-

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:54):

Yet now, all of a sudden-

Mr. Jordan (01:04:55):

Gentlelady, as-

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):

Mr. Chairman, there was no question asked.

Attorney General Bondi (01:04:58):

... she's going after [inaudible 01:04:59].

Mr. Jordan (01:04:58):

The committee will be in order.

Speaker 4 (01:04:59):

Point of order, there was no question asked-

Attorney General Bondi (01:05:00):

Shame on you.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:01):

The committee will be in order.

Attorney General Bondi (01:05:01):

... of the Attorney General. She doesn't just get tospeak.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:04):

To committee will be in order.

Zoe Lofgren (01:05:05):

I have a point of order, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:07):

Committee will be in order.

Zoe Lofgren (01:05:08):

Point of order, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:09):

Gentlelady can state her point of order.

Zoe Lofgren (01:05:12):

When a witness attacks-

Mr. Jordan (01:05:14):

Not a valid point of order. You got to state [inaudible01:05:16].

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):

She hasn't completed her point of order yet.

Zoe Lofgren (01:05:17):

I haven't.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:17):

You have to-

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):

Please let her speak, Mr. Chairman. Let's have someregular order here.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:20):

You got to ... Regular order is you got to state the ruleand she didn't do it.

Zoe Lofgren (01:05:22):

I am trying to make a point of order that the witness,without-

Mr. Jordan (01:05:25):

And what rule are you referring to?

Zoe Lofgren (01:05:26):

... without responding to a question has attacked mepersonally. I think it's pathetic that she can't answer the questions andinstead is attacking members of the committee.

Mr. Jordan (01:05:34):

First time that it ... That is not even close to a pointof order.

(01:05:35):

The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized.

Mr. Tiffany (01:05:40):

In August of last year, I sent a letter to the Departmentof Justice asking for assistance in seeking compensation for the town of Lac duFlambeau. The town of Lac du Flambeau is my district. And your office repliedthat it was an ongoing matter and unable to comment on it, which I understand.It was just fine. But I want to set this up just as a reminder.

(01:05:59):

So three years ago, it was at this time of year that fourroads were blockaded in the town of Lac du Flambeau and the temperature was 25below zero. People had to park their cars at a neighbor's place, take thesnowmobile across the lake to get their car, and then be able to drive intotown. There were people 80 and 90 years old that were very concerned thatthey'd be able to get emergency medical services.

(01:06:26):

And the perpetrators of this, the tribe out there, theydemanded compensation from the town. I would call it extortion. They ultimatelygot $600,000 from the town of Lac du Flambeau.

(01:06:43):

The unfortunate part, Mr. Chairman, is that the Bidenadministration took the side of the perpetrators who closed those roads off.And the Biden administration made it clear to the town of Lac du Flambeau that,"We are not on your side in regards to this."

(01:07:00):

Well, fortunately, there was a federal judge that said,"No, this is wrong, what happened, and these roads should be left open.They should continue to be left open."

(01:07:09):

My question to you is, are you willing to work with myoffice and with the town of Lac du Flambeau to further investigate this matterand seek compensation from the tribal government after their extortion of$600,000 from this little town in Northern Wisconsin?

Attorney General Bondi (01:07:29):

Congressman, you do a great job representing yourdistrict. And yes, we would more than welcome working with you and we arefamiliar with that investigation.

Mr. Tiffany (01:07:39):

Mr. Chairman, I would just add, we're highlighting thesemiscarriages of justice in the previous administration. This is just anotherone of those small examples, no different than the Catholic diocese in Richmondand many others that you have retold so many times. But here's another instanceof what they did to a small town and nearly bankrupted them as a result of it.Fortunately, there was a federal judge that saw through it and has fixed it.

(01:08:06):

I want to move on to fraud enforcement. You haveestablished a National Fraud Enforcement Division. Is that correct, MadamAttorney General?

Attorney General Bondi (01:08:13):

Yes, Congressman.

Mr. Tiffany (01:08:15):

Has this new division begun any investigations and gettingafter those individuals that have committed the rampant fraud we've seen likein Minnesota?

Attorney General Bondi (01:08:26):

Well, it's not only rampant in Minnesota, it's rampantthroughout this country. Much of it is in California, as you know, and otherplaces.

(01:08:34):

Yes, we are working on it actively. Our Criminal FraudDivision has been working on it. We are expanding that. It was the vicepresident's idea to come up with this amazing separate fraud division, which weare establishing and going nonstop, not only to expose the fraud in Minnesota,but around the country. It's taxpayer dollars that have been stolen from theAmerican people, and we are committed to recovering that money and holdingthose people accountable.

Mr. Tiffany (01:09:08):

Mr. Chairman, I would remind everyone here, why did thishappen in Minneapolis? Why did federal law enforcement have to go toMinneapolis? Because of industrial scale fraud. It was an Assistant UnitedStates Attorney that said, "This is industrial scale fraud that's going onin Minnesota at this point."

(01:09:26):

I sent a letter to our governor in Wisconsin; we're rightacross the border there. My district is only 20 miles from the city ofMinneapolis; and I asked him to open the books for a federal audit on foodstamps and Medicaid. Don't you think it would be a good idea for every governorto do that at this point?

Attorney General Bondi (01:09:47):

It protects the citizens, and I can't understand whythat's not happening. And yes, I do think that's a great idea. It's happeningaround this country.

Mr. Tiffany (01:09:54):

And-

Attorney General Bondi (01:09:55):

And when our new division with Colin McDonald isestablished ... It's established when Colin is confirmed. He's amazing. I thinkyou've met with him, you said, Chairman.

Mr. Jordan (01:10:05):

I have.

Attorney General Bondi (01:10:06):

When that is established, we're going to work on bothsides of the aisle. That's what we want to do to stop fraud in every city, inevery state in this country. We will continue to fight for the American people.

Mr. Tiffany (01:10:18):

So you would encourage every governor across the UnitedStates, after what we have seen in Minnesota, and what we almost certainly knowis happening in other states, you mentioned California, you would agree thatevery governor should avail themselves of federal resources to make sure thatthis industrial scale fraud is rooted out to protect the taxpayers of theUnited States. Is that correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:10:41):

Absolutely.

Mr. Tiffany (01:10:43):

Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Mr. Jordan (01:10:44):

Gentleman yields back. The gentleman from Tennessee isrecognized.

Mr. Cohen (01:10:47):

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I'd like to thank you forholding this hearing and holding it in a proper fashion as you have.

(01:10:52):

Secondly, I'd like to thank all of the victims of theEpstein case who've come here to attend this hearing, for doing it and forbeing brave and trying to move this justice forward. I apologize, I can't[inaudible 01:11:04] with the Attorney General not recognizing you. That'sembarrassing.

(01:11:07):

I am from Memphis, General Bondi, and Memphis does havethe task force there. The Memphis Safe Task Force has been operating in Memphisfor several months. And we do have a Democratic mayor, Paul Young, and he's notagainst the task force, but he is against ICE being in Memphis and he's not infavor of the National Guard being in Memphis. And I concur with him on thosepositions. I think the DEA being there, the alcohol, tobacco, firearms, the FBIwho have been in Memphis in other ways, having more people there is good forMemphis.

(01:11:36):

Crime has gone down to Memphis, but it went down 25%before the task force got there under the direction of Mayor Young and DirectorDavis, Chief Davis. It's gone down about 15% more since then, and that's good.But I would like to comment that Mexico City's homicide rate has gone down 40%during the same time when Memphis' has only gone down 25%. And that's notnecessarily because of the task force, although the mayor says he thinks it'shelped. So I thank you for that.

(01:12:07):

You would agree, I presume, that violent crime incommunities across our country is critically important, and that's why the taskforce is there. Is that not true?

Attorney General Bondi (01:12:17):

Yes.

(01:12:17):

And if I can just add to that, I think the surge ... TheFBI, our FBI under the leadership of Director Patel came in and did a surge inMemphis prior-

Mr. Cohen (01:12:27):

Earlier.

Attorney General Bondi (01:12:27):

Yes. Right.

Mr. Cohen (01:12:27):

Prior.

Attorney General Bondi (01:12:27):

Prior to the task force.

Mr. Cohen (01:12:29):

Yeah, [inaudible 01:12:29].

Attorney General Bondi (01:12:29):

And thank you for saying that about Mayor Young. He's beengreat to work with, and thank you.

Mr. Cohen (01:12:34):

He's a good guy.

Attorney General Bondi (01:12:34):

He's a very good guy.

Mr. Cohen (01:12:37):

One problem I've got with where we are in priorities here.A recent Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice report based onarrest records in Texas and in California found that undocumented immigrantswere less than half as likely as US-born Americans to be arrested for homicide.And this pattern holds for assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft,and arson. Half as likely to be arrested for drug offenses.

(01:13:01):

So I ask you ... And I've written to you about this. Thereare TV ads that run that say to local law enforcement specifically, "Areyou tired of having your hands handcuffed because you can't do the things youwanted to do when you joined? And if you want to do something different, joinICE and you'll get a $50,000 bonus, and we'll pay off your debts, studentdebts, and we'll help you with pensions, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."So they're encouraging local law enforcement to leave local law enforcement andgo to work for ICE. We need people working in the front lines of local lawenforcement to protect our citizens from the worst of the worst. The worst ofthe worst are not the immigrants. The worst of the worst, records show, arenative born Americans, and they are committing crimes that hurt our citizensand our cities. And you're working against it, and thank you for that. But bytrying to get our local law enforcement, where we have an undercount ofofficers in Memphis, to leave Memphis and go to work for ICE to deport peopleis a wrong priority. Why are we trying to get people, policemen who are workingon the front lines to leave the front lines, take the $50,000 and go to workfor ICE instead of working to fight the worst of the worst?

Attorney General Bondi (01:14:12):

Congressmen, I have not yet seen that commercial, that ad.I would argue that we need strong people in both local law enforcement, statelaw enforcement, and all of our federal agencies working together.

(01:14:26):

I've seen some of the worst of the worst violentcriminals, violent criminals, who were in this country illegally. We both knowthat. And in Memphis, working hand in hand ... I want to stick with Memphis andyour mayor and what you discussed, because there have been nearly 6,000 arrestsas of February 8th, and I think you agree with this, in your district, in yourdistrict, and almost 600 gang members. What we've found in Memphis, a lot ofthe gangs are local gangs, but 600 gang members were taken off the streets-

Mr. Cohen (01:15:05):

Let me reclaim my time because I've only got four seconds.

Attorney General Bondi (01:15:06):

... 148-

Mr. Cohen (01:15:07):

I'm going to agree with you.

Attorney General Bondi (01:15:08):

Yeah.

Mr. Cohen (01:15:08):

I thank you for that, and [inaudible 01:15:10]-

Attorney General Bondi (01:15:09):

And 148 missing children were recovered by all of usworking together, and nearly one ... I'm sorry, 1,000 illegal guns were seizedas a result of us working together.

Mr. Cohen (01:15:22):

I would like to reclaim my time.

(01:15:22):

And I don't disagree with some of the things you said, butthere are questions about those children. But it's a different thing.

(01:15:28):

The fact is ICE is running rampant and you are notinvestigating them. When they killed Mr. Pretti and Ms. Goode, that was anexecution and you did not investigate it. And you tried to investigate Ms.Goode's widow and you tried to investigate Mr. Pretti. They were executed likeKristi Noem executed her dog, and that was wrong. And you should investigatethose people and you should investigate anybody that uses a weapon, federalofficial or not, for civil rights violations.

(01:15:57):

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Jordan (01:15:58):

Gentlemen yields back his time.

(01:15:59):

Madam Attorney General, anytime you need a break, just letus know.

Attorney General Bondi (01:16:02):

Oh great. Thank you.

Mr. Jordan (01:16:03):

We'll just keep going. The chair is now recognized forfive minutes.

(01:16:05):

Madam Attorney General, you're not allowed to exerciseyour constitutional rights in a way that tramples on someone else's, are you?

Attorney General Bondi (01:16:12):

No.

Mr. Jordan (01:16:12):

No, you can't do that. I mean, you have a right topetition the government under the First Amendment, but that doesn't mean youcan come into this room and start screaming at Mr. Raskin or me or anybody elseand disrupt a congressional hearing. You have a right to protest on thisstreet, but that doesn't give you a right to go into the Capitol and disruptCongress. Something these guys talk about every day. You can't do that.

(01:16:32):

So when Don Lemon said that he was exercising his FirstAmendment freedom of the press rights, that's not really accurate, because hewas trampling on other individuals' rights. Is that true?

Attorney General Bondi (01:16:48):

Chairman, we will always protect our churches and thefreedom of religion. And yes, that's accurate.

Mr. Jordan (01:16:55):

First right mentioned under the First Amendment-

Attorney General Bondi (01:16:57):

Right.

Mr. Jordan (01:16:57):

... freedom of religion. Freedom to practice your faiththe way you think the good Lord wants you to, right?

Attorney General Bondi (01:17:01):

That's right. Under the federal government.

Mr. Jordan (01:17:02):

And isn't it true that Mr. Lemon met at a shopping centerwith the rioters who entered Cities Church in St. Paul, met with them prior tomarching to the church?

Attorney General Bondi (01:17:17):

He did meet. And this is a pending case right now, so Iwill only stick to what is in the four corners of the unsealed indictment, if Icould, Chairman.

Mr. Jordan (01:17:26):

Yeah, I'm [inaudible 01:17:27]-

Attorney General Bondi (01:17:26):

There's a lot more that will come out. But under the fourcorners of the indictment, yes, he did. They had an operation called OperationPull Up. They said they were gearing for a resistance. They met in a parkinglot and they caravaned to a church on a Sunday morning when people wereworshiping together [inaudible 01:17:47].

Mr. Jordan (01:17:47):

And Mr. Lemon said that he live-streamed before enteringthe church with the rioters. Didn't he say, "We're going to head to theoperation?" Didn't he say this on ... He said this on camera, is thatright?

Attorney General Bondi (01:17:57):

Yes, Chairman, and more.

Mr. Jordan (01:17:58):

Yeah. That he was in Minnesota and that, as you said, theywere gearing up for an operation.

(01:18:03):

So again, you can't do that. This is why this is, I think,so important that this guy be held accountable, and I think why you guys havecharged him and indicted him.

(01:18:14):

Moving to the second subject here, will John Brennan beindicted? Mr. Brennan lied to the committee, which you're not supposed to do.Last Congress when we deposed him, he definitely ... 18 USC 1001, we're allfamiliar with it; he lied to the committee. And the committee, the Congress,and I think the country would like to know if in fact he's going to be indictedfor lying to ...

(01:18:35):

And here's why it's so important. I'll give you a chanceto respond. Here's why it's so important. It wasn't just that he lied to us,it's what he lied to us about. He lied to us about when all this weaponizationagainst the President of the United States started, he lied to us about thedossier, and specifically what role the dossier played in the intelligencecommunity assessment. Because we know back when President Trump was firstelected, first term, this is when it all started, which led to the Mueller andto the impeachment and to the Jack Smith and all the stuff that's happened inthe last decade. But it began here and he lied to Congress about the role heplayed.

(01:19:12):

And I just want to read a couple of things he said duringthat deposition before I give you a chance to respond.

(01:19:18):

Mr. Brennan, when asked a question, said the CIA was notinvolved at all with the dossier. He said it was their purview, the FBI'spurview and not ours. He also said the CIA was very much opposed to having anyreference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the intelligence communityassessment.

(01:19:36):

Well, that's interesting because information that wasdeclassified this past summer by the CIA says something entirely different. Itsays, "Brennan ... " I want to put this one up if we have it. Itsays, "Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, statingthat, quote, this is released by the CI Director Ratcliffe, 'My bottom line isthat what I believe, that that information warrants inclusion in thereport.'"

(01:19:57):

He was further asked by a CIA official ... The sameofficer said when he approached the director and that the director refused toremove it after being explained this wasn't good with the dossier's many flaws,he said, "Yes, but doesn't it ring true?"

(01:20:17):

So this is John Brennan using that document to change theintelligence community assessment, which I think led to all the stuff we'veseen over the last decade. And I think Congress and the country would like toknow if Mr. Brennan is going to be indicted.

Attorney General Bondi (01:20:39):

What I can confirm is that we have received a referralfrom you, Chairman Jordan, to investigate John Brennan. His attorneys have madesome public statements, but the department is still bound, of course, by ourlongstanding policy of not discussing matters.

(01:20:57):

What I will say today, I can't confirm nor deny whetherthere is a pending investigation, but what I will say is no one is above thelaw.

Speaker 4 (01:21:07):

Hmm.

Speaker 5 (01:21:07):

Mr. Chairman, point of order-

Attorney General Bondi (01:21:08):

Weaponization has ended.

Mr. Jordan (01:21:10):

Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:21:11):

Point of order, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Jordan (01:21:13):

Gentleman from New York is recognized for a point oforder.

Speaker 5 (01:21:16):

If we want to know whether Mr. Brennan will be indicted,you should just ask the president.

Speaker 4 (01:21:19):

Hmm.

Speaker 6 (01:21:19):

Not a point of order.

Mr. Jordan (01:21:21):

Not a point of order, but I appreciate you trying to makeit one.

(01:21:25):

The gentleman from Georgia is recognized.

Mr. Johnson (01:21:28):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General Bondi, it's been reportedthat there were at one point 1000 personnel assigned to the task of identifyingand scrubbing Donald Trump's name from the Epstein files. Were those reportsaccurate?

Attorney General Bondi (01:21:55):

I believe his name has appeared countless times in thedocument that have been released-

Mr. Johnson (01:21:58):

Okay, but how many people were assigned?

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:02):

If I could finish.

Mr. Johnson (01:22:03):

No, I just asked a-

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:03):

I'm going to read you the stats.

Mr. Johnson (01:22:05):

No, I just simply asked whether or not it was true that itwas 1000 folks who were assigned that task. Were those reports accurate?

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:17):

There are more than 500 attorneys and reviewers. I cannotgive you an exact number, who-

Mr. Johnson (01:22:23):

Okay, and I wanted-

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:23):

I'm trying to answer-

Mr. Johnson (01:22:23):

... to ask you-

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:23):

I'm answering your question, sir.

Mr. Johnson (01:22:24):

I wanted to ask you about that also because this is adifferent question that you're getting to now.

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:29):

Who were assisting with this project.

Mr. Johnson (01:22:30):

There were 500 DOJ lawyers-

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:33):

[inaudible 01:22:35].

Mr. Johnson (01:22:36):

... and others assigned the task of redacting theappropriate information, including identities of the Epstein victim survivorsfrom the Epstein files prior to their release. 500. Is that correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:55):

If I could have finished my answer-

Mr. Johnson (01:22:56):

Well, I just ... I'm just-

Attorney General Bondi (01:22:57):

... there were more than 500 attorneys and reviewers whoassisted with the-

Mr. Johnson (01:23:02):

Okay. All right. Okay. That answers my-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:06):

They ask a question and they don't want an answer.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:06):

That answers my question, ma'am-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:06):

Congressman, I'm going to continue.

(01:23:06):

[Inaudible 01:23:07]-

Mr. Johnson (01:23:06):

... and I'm going to move on. I'm going to move on.

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:09):

... from multiple districts.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:11):

General Bondi, would you agree-

Speaker 3 (01:23:12):

[inaudible 01:23:13] order.

Mr. Jordan (01:23:12):

The time belongs-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:12):

This is ridiculous-

Mr. Jordan (01:23:13):

The time belongs to the gentleman from Georgia.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:15):

General Bondi, would you agree that your eight years ofservice as the state of Florida's Attorney General, the third-largest state inthe nation served as an excellent preparation for your current role as AttorneyGeneral for the United States of America?

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:31):

Not only that, I was a career prosecutor for 18 years.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:39):

For 18 years. And for 18-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:39):

18 years.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:39):

And for 18 years-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:39):

Prior to being Attorney-

Mr. Johnson (01:23:39):

For 18 years, you prosecuted-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:40):

He asks a question and doesn't want an answer.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:41):

But-

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:41):

This is theatrics.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:42):

Well, no.

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:43):

Come on.

Mr. Johnson (01:23:43):

For 18 years, you prosecuted serious felony cases,including drug cases, correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:23:52):

Oh, I prosecuted homicides, I prosecuted capital cases, Iprosecuted domestic violence cases. I prosecuted multiple cases, and that's whyI feel for all of these victims.

(01:24:02):

And did you ask Merrick Garland this while you weresitting before him, sir?

Mr. Johnson (01:24:06):

And you also prosecuted sexual assault cases and child sextrafficking cases, correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:16):

I answered that question earlier.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:18):

Okay. All right.

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:18):

I prosecuted multiple cases-

Mr. Johnson (01:24:22):

Yeah. So bottom line-

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:22):

... when I was a prosecutor-

Mr. Johnson (01:24:22):

Bottom line-

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:22):

If I can answer the question.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:24):

... you're an experienced and seasoned-

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:26):

For 18 years.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:26):

You're a-

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):

Mr. Chairman, would you remind her of the rules? The timebelongs to the member of the committee.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:30):

You are a seasoned-

Mr. Jordan (01:24:31):

I think I've said that a few times.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:32):

... an experienced prosecutor, correct?

Mr. Jordan (01:24:37):

I think we've established that.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:39):

Yes or no?

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:40):

Does he want an answer or not?

Mr. Jordan (01:24:42):

I think he wants the same answer.

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:42):

When I answer, I get cut off.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:42):

No, I want a yes or no answer.

Mr. Jordan (01:24:42):

I think he wants the same answer.

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:42):

Well, I can-

Mr. Johnson (01:24:42):

I want a yes or no answer, but-

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:46):

Yeah, I can explain my experience.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:46):

... I'll live with what you have already said.

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:47):

I would love to explain my experience.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:50):

Let me ask you this question.

Attorney General Bondi (01:24:51):

Clearly you don't have any.

Mr. Johnson (01:24:52):

In the prosecution of sexual assault cases, you areacutely aware of how important it is to protect the identity of victims ofsexual assault, correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:25:08):

I have addressed this multiple times. I think others werecutting me off when I was trying to.

Mr. Johnson (01:25:13):

Well, I just simply asked, are you aware of the fact thatit's vitally important to protect the identity of sexual assault victims as youprosecute the people they accuse of assaulting them? Isn't that correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:25:28):

As we have said ... Excuse me. As we have said multipletimes-

Mr. Johnson (01:25:34):

Protection of the identity-

Attorney General Bondi (01:25:34):

... protection of all victims are protected-

Mr. Johnson (01:25:38):

... of the victims is so very-

Attorney General Bondi (01:25:39):

You are protected under-

Mr. Johnson (01:25:39):

... important.

Attorney General Bondi (01:25:39):

Do you want me to answer or do you want to interrupt?

Mr. Johnson (01:25:41):

Well, because you're not answering the question. You do aJekyll and Hyde kind of routine around here, and I just want you to answer myquestions.

(01:25:49):

You know-

Attorney General Bondi (01:25:50):

What does Jekyll and Hyde mean? Can you explain that?Explain that.

Mr. Johnson (01:25:51):

Well, it means you're nice to the Republicans and you turnlike Hyde on Democrats.

(01:25:58):

But let me ask you this, ma'am. We have the Epstein victimsurvivors here today. Representative Jayapal asked a simple question, if youwould be so kind and honorable as to turn around and face them and apologize tothem for outing them. I mean, how many lives have been derailed because yourdepartment was either sloppy and incompetent or willfully trying to intimidateand punish these ladies for coming forward?

Attorney General Bondi (01:26:40):

Your time is up.

Mr. Jordan (01:26:40):

The time of the gentleman-

Mr. Johnson (01:26:40):

Which was it?

Mr. Jordan (01:26:40):

The time of the gentleman has expired. The gentleman back.

(01:26:43):

The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin forfive minutes.

Speaker 7 (01:26:46):

[inaudible 01:26:47] we'll get [inaudible 01:26:47] isready.

Mr. Fitzgerald (01:26:48):

Attorney General Bondi, my colleagues on the other side ofthe aisle have spent the past several months attacking the administration fordoing exactly what the American people wanted when they overwhelmingly electedPresident Trump, securing our border and enforcing our immigration laws. I findit a bit ironic because this is the same party who just a few years ago wereopenly supporting strong immigration enforcement after witnessing criminalillegal aliens wreak havoc on the American communities.

(01:27:21):

I have a short video I just wanted to play.

Video clip (01:27:23):

... of immigrants.

(01:27:25):

We're also a nation of laws. Undocumented workers brokeour immigration laws, and I believe that they must be held accountable.

(01:27:33):

They've committed a crime, deport them. No questionsasked. They're gone.

(01:27:38):

No great nation can be in a position where they can'tcontrol their borders.

(01:27:44):

While we need to address the issue of immigration and thechallenge we have of undocumented people in our country, we certainly don'twant any more coming in.

(01:27:52):

... every place in this country are rightly disturbed bythe large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they holdmight otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public servicethey use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That's why our administration hasmoved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of newborder guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, bycracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.

(01:28:24):

Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple. When weuse phrases like undocumented workers, we convey a message to the Americanpeople that their government is not serious about combating illegalimmigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose. If you don'tthink it's illegal, you're not going to say it. I think it is illegal andwrong.

(01:28:47):

... open the borders. My God. You know, there's a lot ofpoverty in this world and you're going to have people from all over the world.And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point. Can't do it.

(01:28:57):

Yes or no, would you allow the cities to ignore thefederal law?

(01:29:00):

No.

(01:29:01):

We simply cannot allow people to pour into the UnitedStates undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line ofpeople who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrantsin this country.

Mr. Fitzgerald (01:29:20):

So Attorney General Bondi, what's the Trump administrationDOJ doing to end the open border policies of the prior administration that sawdangerous drugs and criminal aliens flood our communities?

Attorney General Bondi (01:29:40):

Congressman, President Trump has worked tirelessly, as youknow, to close our border, which is what the Democrats had asked for in thatvideo. President Trump closed our borders on day one. He is protectingAmericans. He is protecting our kids from the influx of drugs that were flowinginto this country from Mexico. The fentanyl precursors that were coming fromChina, these precursors were taken from China into Mexico. And in Mexico, theywere mixed and freely taken right into our country along with gang members,MS-13, TDA, freely coming into our cities around our country, thanks to JoeBiden's open border policies. That has stopped under Donald Trump, it will nolonger happen under this administration, and he is doing everything to keepAmericans safe.

(01:30:41):

And let me continue. When he was elected overwhelmingly bythe American people, the majority of the American people wanted Donald Trump,one of the main reasons was border security and keeping Americans safe. Andthat's exactly what he did. And that's why today the other side sits here, theyyell, they cut me off. They want to yell, they want to ask a question and don'twant answers because they want to distract from all the great things that thispresident and this administration working hand in hand, and that includesSecretary Noem, who has closed our borders, and Tom Homan, who has closed ourborders to keep Americans safe. And they're trying to distract from that andthey're not going to do it, because the American people are smarter than thatand they see through their theatrics.

Mr. Fitzgerald (01:31:29):

Thank you.

(01:31:29):

Just quickly, yesterday, Senator Grassley reached out tomy office to tell me that I was one of the 20 members that was now disclosedwere under surveillance from Jack Smith. This brings up the question ofnon-disclosed orders and whether or not they should apply to members ofCongress.

(01:31:48):

Well, with my phone records being surveilled, as well aslooks like 19 other members of Congress, I'm just wondering how DOJ views that.

Mr. Jordan (01:31:58):

Time [inaudible 01:31:59] gentleman's expired, but thegentlelady can respond.

Attorney General Bondi (01:32:00):

As I stated earlier, Congressman, anyone's records whowere illegally obtained, Democrat or Republican, we will fight vigorously tostop that. Anything with Arctic Frost, I can't discuss right now.

Mr. Jordan (01:32:13):

And isn't it true, Madam Attorney General, the DOJ haschanged their policy? You can't do that now.

Attorney General Bondi (01:32:18):

Absolutely.

Mr. Jordan (01:32:18):

The DOJ is not going to go do that and ask the judge foran NDO.

Attorney General Bondi (01:32:21):

Absolutely.

Mr. Jordan (01:32:22):

Yeah, good. That in and of itself tells you how wrong itwas.

(01:32:25):

The chair now recognizes the gentleman from California.

Mr. Swalwell (01:32:27):

Great. Thank you.

(01:32:29):

Madam Attorney General, you acknowledged earlier to Mr.Johnson that President Trump was mentioned in the release, countless times yousaid, in the Epstein files.

(01:32:40):

I just want to play a video though for you that I thinkspeaks to the frustration that many of these victims have.

(01:32:45):

... of times Trump's name appears in the files. So itcould at least be a thousand times. Is that right?

Director Patel (01:32:53):

The number is a total misleading factor. We have notreleased anyone's names that-

Mr. Swalwell (01:32:58):

Could it at least be a thousand times?

Director Patel (01:32:58):

We have not released anyone's name in the Epstein filesthat has not been credible.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:02):

Director, could it at least be a thousand times?

Director Patel (01:33:04):

We have released every piece of legally permissibleinformation.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:06):

Okay, so-

Director Patel (01:33:07):

You can characterize the numbers however you want it.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:09):

I'm reclaiming my time, Director.

(01:33:11):

It sounds like if you don't know the number, it could atleast be a thousand times-

Director Patel (01:33:16):

It's not.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:16):

... which means-

Director Patel (01:33:16):

It's not.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:17):

Is it at least 500 times?

Director Patel (01:33:17):

No.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:18):

Is it at least a hundred times?

Director Patel (01:33:19):

No.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:20):

Then what's the number?

Director Patel (01:33:20):

I don't know the number.

Mr. Swalwell (01:33:25):

I understand why the victims are frustrated. And theAttorney General acknowledged what Mr. Patel would not acknowledge, that it wasway more than a thousand times.

(01:33:33):

But I want to move, Madam Attorney General, toweaponization of government. Yesterday it was reported that six members ofCongress had indictments sought against them and they were not returned by agrand jury. My colleagues have spoken about their frustration of being insubpoenas and having cell phone records combed through.

(01:33:53):

Well, in 2017 and 2018, Adam Schiff and I had our cellphone records and email records combed through; not by you, but a differentDepartment of Justice under the president. It was in retaliation for our rolein the Russia interference campaign. An Inspector General report would findthis improper and that the predicate for it was absurd.

(01:34:13):

In 2020, after sitting on two committees that were a partof the president's first impeachment, an FBI agent leaked my cooperation in anational security case where my campaign was targeted. The president's FBIsenior leadership authorized two statements to the press that said I was neversuspected of wrongdoing and only helped the investigation, but that didn't stopthe death threats or my GOP colleagues from referring me to an ethicsinvestigation where Kevin McCarthy's chairman on the ethics committee wouldfind the same thing as the FBI.

(01:34:42):

Our current FBI director would then write a book calledGovernment Gangsters and identify a long list of enemies. About a quarter ofthem have been either investigated or indicted. He listed me at the very topalong with Adam Schiff, and during that same testimony, refused to recusehimself when asked if he would recuse if any case came across his deskinvolving me or people on that list.

(01:35:05):

Since that testimony, his department has put me underinvestigation with Senator Schiff for the nonsense mortgage fraud cases thatwe've seen.

(01:35:14):

I get it. This is what the president does. I've priced itin. We have a bingo card at home that my kids have made of what will come next.I expected that the president would come after his enemies. But what I want totalk to you next is serious, and I did not expect this would happen and I'dlike your help on it. The president has inspired death threats against me andmany sitting up here with me. In June 2025, an individual left 11 voicemails atmy district office. On the voicemails, they said, "Get the message to him.I'm going to hunt him down, that motherfucker, and toss his ass over the GoldenGate Bridge by my fucking self." Donald Trump's Department of Justice inthe Northern District of California declined to prosecute.

(01:35:54):

On May 14, 2025, on Twitter responding to something Iposted,

Mr. Swalwell (01:36:00):

... an individual said, "No, it wasn't Eric, and nowI'm going to kill you." The Department of Justice from the SouthernDistrict of Texas declined to prosecute. May through December of 2025, wereceived messages at my office that said, "I hope somebody shoots you andyour children and your wife in the head. Pew, pew, motherfucker, pew, pew. Iwould stay indoors as much as possible." And my children unfortunatelyhave to do that. The Department of Justice has not charged this individual andcited that he's a prolific caller and has health conditions. Although what wehave found in our own investigation and his voicemails is that he has said hewill employ others to do this.

(01:36:37):

The president can come after me. It's fine. I'm in thearena. So are these folks. But we never expected that the Department of Justicewould not seek to prosecute and investigate those who are making threatsagainst us. And that would include those on that side of the aisle. And I'mjust asking for your help to protect life because life is at risk with theenvironment we're in right now.

Attorney General Bondi (01:37:00):

Congressman, I completely agree with you. I know aboutseveral of those personally involving you. I believe one has been chargedpublicly and there's something I would be happy to talk to you about offcamera, but I can assure you that they are very serious. They are being lookedinto, and I can give you more details on those.

(01:37:25):

None of you should be threatened, ever. None of yourchildren should be threatened. None of your families should be threatened. AndI will work with ... You can come into my office any day I will work with allof you on both sides of the aisle if you are ever threatened. And I'll gladlytalk to you after this hearing about your cases, but I can tell you some ofthem are very active.

Mr. Swalwell (01:37:47):

Appreciate that. And I yield back.

Mr. Jordan (01:37:48):

Gentleman, yields back and we're sorry for what thegentleman and his family have had to go through. We appreciate what theAttorney General said. And I think some of the things that the gentleman fromCalifornia related, we can all relate to and it's unfortunate it's wrong as theAttorney General said, and we appreciate the help we get from the JusticeDepartment. With that, we will now recognize the gentleman from New Jersey, Mr.Van Drew.

Mr. Van Drew (01:38:11):

Thank you, Chairman. I don't know where to begin. Thankyou for being here, General. You might see me when I'm right in front of you. Ihave to mention this first, I used this word before and my friends on the otherside of the aisle got mad at me, but hypocrisy. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. Butfor years on the other side of the aisle, we heard nothing. Crickets, not aword. Nothing was said when they were in control. Nothing was mentionedbasically the last summer, and the ranking member points out that he did dosomething last year. Yeah, he did a letter complaining about the plea deal forMaxwell, but it wasn't a big deal.

(01:38:53):

Then we get a new administration and all of a sudden it'sa big deal and they feign concern, they're upset, they're investigating. Theyhad all these years and all this time. And in fact, Stacey Plaskett, and we allknow that name, when they had a congressional hearing, Democratic member weretaking texts from Epstein on questions to ask to go after Trump. So Epstein wasusing her, Democratic colleague as a tool to go after President Trump. Justeverybody keep that in mind.

(01:39:24):

And then we talk about ICE and how horrible it is. Andthere are concerns, everybody wants everything to go right, nobody ever wantsto see somebody die, and they complain about it. But at the same time,hypocrisy, they encourage constituents to go after the ICE agents, to challengethem, to hurt them, to attack them. And that doesn't make sense. That'shypocrisy.

(01:39:48):

And then we hear about the concern of going afterDemocrats, that the legal system, that judiciary and the Department of Justiceis going after Democrats. But they literally reworked the legal system underAlvin Bragg and Leticia James to go after Republicans and those sympathetic toRepublicans. So I mean, be careful when you accuse others that you're notguilty yourself. Be careful of what you say because you got a history and it'seasy to go over it.

(01:40:20):

I just want to talk about where we were and where we arenow. We had over 10 million illegal crossings in the past between 2020 and '24.Over 10 million. There's probably a much bigger number, I'm being conservative.We were told that people weren't dangerous, but they were, General. They weredangerous, many of them. More than 300 individuals on the terror watch listduring that time. Violent criminals came across as we saw consequences wheremothers and fathers, daughters and son, children were raped, murdered, hurt,abused, beaten, trafficked, all from the drugs.

(01:40:55):

My God, the drugs they brought into our babies in thiscountry. 73,000 illegals with criminal histories. 20,000 with convictions ofassault, robbery and sex offenses. 13,000 convicted murderers in our [inaudible01:41:14]. It was madness. It was insanity. It's bizarre. It's perverse. Whatin God's name were you doing? So we finally are cleaning this up now. We'refinally trying to make it right and safe for our people. So my questions arethis. General, do you believe in removing criminal illegal aliens from ourcommunities will save American lives?

Attorney General Bondi (01:41:39):

Yes. And given the cases that you just discussed, that'sproof of it. Every single day, President Trump is committed to that. Thisentire Cabinet is committed to that and making and keeping Americans safe.

Mr. Van Drew (01:41:52):

Thank you. Will you agree that, and thank you for doingthat, would you agree that allowing individuals with known criminal historiesto enter and remain in the United States...? We knew this back then, they knewit, would you agree that creates serious risks to our public safety? I know theanswers, but let's just say them clearly.

Attorney General Bondi (01:42:09):

Yes.

Mr. Van Drew (01:42:10):

Would you agree that when dangerous individuals arereleased instead of detained, and they were released over and over and overagain, and these are the real issues, this is really what America cares about,they want their children and their families to be safe, do you think if yourelease them instead of detaining them, that crimes will happen because ofthat?

Attorney General Bondi (01:42:30):

Absolutely.

Mr. Van Drew (01:42:31):

Would you agree that ... I'm sorry.

Attorney General Bondi (01:42:33):

And it did.

Mr. Van Drew (01:42:34):

And it did. Thank you. Would you agree that cooperationbetween, and this is a biggie, and I'm going to ask you to elaborate on this,this is a big deal, this is why some of the problems we're seeing in some ofthe places like Minnesota are happening, that cooperation between federal andlocal enforcement, which we always used to have, helps remove violent offendersfrom our communities that we should be a team?

Attorney General Bondi (01:42:58):

Yes.

Mr. Van Drew (01:42:59):

And can you elaborate on that a little bit? In otherwords, when the local enforcement is forced by the politicians, not theirfault, not to do their job and not cooperate, why does it create the situationsthat we see where we have need for crowd control? By the way, they're notpeaceful, those are not peaceful protestors. We know what a peaceful protesteris. When you spit on law enforcement, when you push them, when you hit them,when you beat their car, if you can answer the question, thank you.

Mr. Jordan (01:43:28):

[inaudible 01:43:29]. You may answer the question.

Attorney General Bondi (01:43:29):

Thank you. Yes. I spent four days myself in Minnesota andMinneapolis. What I will say about some of these sanctuary cities, some ofthese Democratic cities, law enforcement, they quietly want to work with us.I've spoken to law enforcement in multiple cities who want to work with us. Andyes, we're going to do everything we can to keep our citizens safe, whether ornot these Democrat controlled sanctuary cities do or don't.

Mr. Van Drew (01:44:00):

And dammit, that's what really matters. I yield back.

Mr. Jordan (01:44:02):

[inaudible 01:44:03] time has expired.

Ms. Crockett (01:44:03):

Mr. Chair, I have a UC.

Mr. Jordan (01:44:07):

Ms. Crockett from Texas is recognized for UC.

Ms. Crockett (01:44:09):

Thank you so much. Donald Trump's approval rating implodeson his strongest issue. This is from Newsweek today, it says 40% of peopleapprove of Trump's handling of immigration-

Mr. Jordan (01:44:16):

Thank you. You don't need to read the article to us.

Ms. Crockett (01:44:19):

... and border security while 60% disapproved [inaudible01:44:22].

Mr. Jordan (01:44:22):

Without objection, admitted. Now I recognize the gentlemanfrom California, Mr. Lou.

Mr. Lieu (01:44:35):

Thank you, Attorney General Bondi for being here today.I'm going to show you two photos-

Attorney General Bondi (01:44:39):

Thank you.

Mr. Lieu (01:44:40):

... I'm going to show you two photos of former PrinceAndrew. Prince Andrew attended various parties with Jeffrey Epstein. Under thelaw Congress passed, you were allowed to redact photos to protect the victimsof Epstein's sex trafficking operation. You redacted the photos of thisvictim's face because you are following the congressional law. Is that correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:45:13):

I'm sorry, that we redacted the victim's face?

Mr. Lieu (01:45:15):

Because you were following the congressional law, correct?

Attorney General Bondi (01:45:17):

Yes.

Mr. Lieu (01:45:18):

Okay. You have now established that we, please put thephotos back up, that we are looking at a sex trafficking victim. Under theFederal Victim's Trafficking Protection Act, not only is Jeffrey Epsteinguilty, but anyone who patronizes Epstein's sex operation is also guilty of acrime. That's why I find it absolutely despicable that you sought to protectEpstein's clients like former Prince Andrew.

(01:45:49):

Last July, you closed the case on Epstein's abusers. TheJuly 2025 memo from your Department of Justice stated, quote, "We did notuncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged thirdparties." These two photos, please put the photos back up, these twophotos staring you in the face are evidence of a crime and more than enoughevidence to predicate an investigation against former Prince Andrew. So I askyou, Attorney General Pam Bondi, why did you shut down this investigation last Julyand why have you not prosecuted former Prince Andrew?

Attorney General Bondi (01:46:29):

I don't believe you asked Merrick Garland these questionswhen he was Attorney General and sat before-

Mr. Lieu (01:46:36):

I agree with you.

Attorney General Bondi (01:46:37):

... you twice-

Mr. Lieu (01:46:37):

I'm reclaiming my time.

Attorney General Bondi (01:46:38):

... did you? Never mentioned it.

Mr. Lieu (01:46:39):

I agree with you. I agree with you.

Attorney General Bondi (01:46:40):

[inaudible 01:46:42].

Mr. Lieu (01:46:41):

During the Biden administration, I called for peoplelooking at Epstein files. Mayor Garland dropped the ball as did AttorneyGeneral Bill Barr, as did Alex Acosta, a whole string of failures, but you arein charge. You have the power to change things, to hold these men accountableand you're doing the opposite. You're protecting them. So I want to move on toanother man.

Attorney General Bondi (01:47:02):

Can I answer that?

Mr. Lieu (01:47:03):

Donald Trump. I want to move on to another question.

Attorney General Bondi (01:47:05):

Can I answer your question about protecting [inaudible01:47:07].

Mr. Lieu (01:47:06):

You answered the question.

Attorney General Bondi (01:47:08):

You're saying no. I love this.

Mr. Lieu (01:47:09):

I want to discuss another man, Donald Trump, who is allover the Epstein files. Like former Prince, here's a video, like former PrinceAndrew, Donald Trump attended various parties with Jeffrey Epstein. I want toknow were there any underage girls at that party or at any party that Trumpattended with Jeffrey Epstein?

Attorney General Bondi (01:47:52):

This is so ridiculous and that they are trying to deflectfrom all the great things Donald Trump has done. There is no evidence thatDonald Trump has committed a crime. Everyone knows that. This has been the mosttransparent presidency. He's the one that asked that those files be released.

Mr. Lieu (01:48:12):

Let me claim my time. I got your answer. You said"There's no evidence."

Attorney General Bondi (01:48:14):

President Trump asked [inaudible 01:48:15].

Mr. Lieu (01:48:15):

Mr. Chairman please stop the clock. Please stop the clock.

Attorney General Bondi (01:48:18):

[inaudible 01:48:19]. This is ridiculous.

Mr. Jordan (01:48:20):

Time belongs to the gentleman from California.

Mr. Lieu (01:48:22):

Okay. I'm going to put up another document from a witnesswho called the FBI's National Threat Operation Center because I believe youjust lied under oath. There is ample evidence in the Epstein file...

Attorney General Bondi (01:48:36):

Don't you ever accuse me of a crime.

Mr. Lieu (01:48:38):

I believe you just lied under oath and this is all onvideotape. You said, "There's no evidence of a crime," I'm showingyou here is a witness statement who called into the FBI's Threat OperationCenter. He drove Donald Trump around in a limo. He overheard what Donald Trumpsaid to Jeffrey on his cell phone. He was so angry he was going to stop a limoand hurt Donald Trump.

(01:48:59):

And he met a girl who said she was raped by Donald Trumpand Jeffrey Epstein. She later had her head blown off and officers at the scenesaid that could not have been suicide. No one, no one at the Department ofJustice interviewed this witness. You need to interview this witnessimmediately. Epstein should rot in hell, so should the men who patronize hisoperation. And as we sit here today, there are over 1,000 sex traffickingvictims and you have not held a single man accountable. Shame on you. If youhad any decency, you would resign right after this hearing concludes.

Mr. Jordan (01:49:40):

The time of the gentleman has expired.

Attorney General Bondi (01:49:43):

May I respond?

Mr. Jordan (01:49:44):

Yeah. I don't know how you respond. No one can [inaudible01:49:46].

Mr. Lieu (01:49:46):

I did not ask a question.

Mr. Jordan (01:49:47):

Go ahead. You're allowed to.

Mr. Lieu (01:49:48):

I did not ask a question.

Attorney General Bondi (01:49:49):

[inaudible 01:49:49] A crime in California. He does notwant to talk about-

Mr. Lieu (01:49:52):

I did not ask a question.

Attorney General Bondi (01:49:53):

... a crime in his state. [inaudible 01:49:55].

Mr. Lieu (01:49:54):

I did not ask a question.

Mr. Jordan (01:49:57):

[inaudible 01:49:58] will be in order. The gentleman hasyielded back his time. I think our next witness will be more than happy to letthe Attorney General respond.

Mr. Moore (01:50:05):

Attorney General, would you like to?

Mr. Jordan (01:50:06):

Gentleman from Alabama is recognized for five minutes.

Mr. Moore (01:50:09):

You have a few minutes to respond.

Attorney General Bondi (01:50:09):

Thank you, Congressman. This is what Congressman Lieudidn't want to talk about. He didn't want to talk about all the crime that ishappening in his state. California refuses to honor detainees because of itsdangerous sanctuary city policies. The refusal means California has released4,561 criminal illegal aliens, criminal illegal aliens, onto its street. Thecrimes of these aliens include 31 homicides, 661 assaults, 574 burglaries, 184robberies, 1, 489 dangerous drug offenses, 379 weapons offenses, and 234 sexualpredator offenses. That's why they are deflecting. That's why they're trying totalk about the Epstein files. That's currently happening in his home state.

Mr. Moore (01:51:27):

Attorney General, thank you for being here and I wanted tomake sure you had time to respond. I'm going to change gears a little bit. InOctober when you were testifying before the Senate, I know you and my friendSenator Katie Britt discussed concerns and infiltration of the illegal Chinesevapes into our country. As a father of three, obviously, I'm worried a littlebit about this, and I believe that many parents in the country share oursimilar concerns. Can you provide an update on DOJ's work in this space overthe past few months?

Attorney General Bondi (01:51:56):

Yes. And thank you for bringing that up. We're talkingabout the vapes, and this should be an issue where both sides of the aisle canwork together on. Parents need to understand, children need to understand thatso many of these are being manufactured in China, sent to our country and havethe potential to be laced with lethal drugs. We've seen an overdose. We need toget on the front end of this before we have another crisis and children aredying. I've partnered with Secretary Kennedy, of course, at HHS on this matter,but thank you for bringing it up. They're selling these things as flavoredvapes illegally in many stores around the country.

(01:52:42):

Secretary Kennedy and I actually did a ... We went and didsomething on this, and it was sadly the day that Charlie Kirk was assassinated.And so it didn't get a lot of attention, nor should it have after thathappened. But yes, we're continuing to work on that and thank you for bringingthat up. That's happening in all of our states. And I would ask everyone here,I know Congresswoman Ross was just nodding, it's happening in every state andnot only are they laced with THC, many of these vapes, but they could be lacedwith fentanyl.

(01:53:15):

We have had a child, I wish I could think of the state itwas in, but we have already had someone overdose and we have to get together onthis and we have to get on the front end of this and I would love to workacross the aisle on this to protect our kids. How many school kids do you seenow vaping? And it's not only ... I believe a vape has 20 cigarettes, one vapeis 20 cigarettes, I believe it is, but also what they could be laced withbecause so many of them, the majority of them are manufactured in China.

Mr. Moore (01:53:49):

Sure. And if you need additional resources, please let usknow as you're going through the process. And then I'm going to change gearsone more time on you. Under the Biden administration, there was a lot ofconfusion created when parts of the DOJ began treating software developers likefinancial institutions. Even when they did not hold or control anyone's money,they were simply building the technology. That uncertainty made it harder forAmericans to build, innovate here at home.

(01:54:13):

Earlier this year, the Deputy Attorney General issued amemo entitled Ending Regulations by Prosecution, a clear break from the Bidenadministration's approach, and I think it's important. That's a good step inthe right direction, but can you talk a bit about how the DOJ is now puttingthat memo into practice, especially when it comes to making sure that peopleare just writing the software and don't control the user's funds? We don't wantthem treated as an unlicensed money or they're not money transmitters.

Attorney General Bondi (01:54:42):

Yes. And we're doing everything we can to protect theAmerican people on that. And I would refer everyone to Deputy Attorney GeneralBlanche's memo, and we're working as hard as we can on that topic.

Mr. Moore (01:54:52):

Because we want to lead the way in the space on that. Sowe'd appreciate the help. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back 10seconds.

Mr. Jordan (01:54:59):

Gentleman yields back. We recognize the gentleman fromArizona for unanimous consent.

Speaker 8 (01:55:02):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of UCs.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:05):

Gentleman can proceed.

Speaker 8 (01:55:05):

Thank you. Bombshell new docs show Trump called policeabout Epstein in 2006.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:10):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:11):

Kamala Harris defends Biden administration decision not torelease Epstein files.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:16):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:17):

Why weren't they released during the Biden administration?

Mr. Jordan (01:55:20):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:21):

House Democrat Stacy Plaskett exchanged texts with Epsteinduring a 2019 congressional hearing.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:26):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:27):

New York judge allows Epstein victims claims againstPlaskett to proceed.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:31):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:32):

Hakeem Jeffries solicited funding from Epstein in 2013after financier was convicted child sex offender.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:38):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:39):

Jeffrey Epstein was invited to DIM fundraising dinner andto get to know Hakeem Jeffries by firm working with Brooklyn's Barack.

Mr. Jordan (01:55:47):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:55:48):

An email from Lesley Groff to Jeffrey Epstein concerningHakeem Jeffries fundraising. Epstein files says Biden was replaced in 2019?

Mr. Jordan (01:56:01):

Without objection.

Speaker 8 (01:56:02):

Thank you.

Mr. Jordan (01:56:04):

Gentleman yields back. The gentleman from California isrecognized. Mr. Correa.

Mr. Correa (01:56:11):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome Ms. AG Bondi. I agreewith you, our top priority should be protecting Americans. In my past life inthe California state legislature, I did a lot of work on solving sex crimes,passing legislation to update our codes and I found that the biggest challengeto solving sex crimes is reporting them. Victims have to have the guts to standup to report those sex crimes, but it's not easy. It's the most unreportedcrime there is, is sex crimes. It's painful, humiliating and a lot of times thevictims don't think anything's going to come out of their reporting thesecrimes. Then we have adults who as children were molested, boys and girls whowill live in silence for the rest of their life.

(01:57:08):

I believe the Epstein files are just one of many sex ringsex crimes taking place in our society today. I hear 1200 Epstein victims, someadditional victims as young or nine to 10 years old. The challenge I havetoday, what bothers me today about this hearing, Madam AG, is what's themessage we're sending out there on Main Street? Shouldn't ask a question Idon't know an answer to, but I'm going to ask the victims behind you right now.First, can you please stand up? And then can you please raise your hand if youthink after everything you've heard today, you feel that our AG, the feds, haveyour back? Do we have your back? Raise your hand if you're confident that wegot your back. And that's the issue, Madam AG. We've got to make sure thatvictims stand up and report the crimes. Otherwise, we're going to be takingstep backwards.

(01:58:12):

Today, AI, cyber, social media, the new realm for peopleto be hurt, attacked sexually, these are the areas I'd welcome the opportunityto work with you on. It's not your problem. It's not my problem. It's ourproblem. But to have redacted files that are not showing us the names of thesepredators is wrong. These are very powerful people. This was a very expensivebusiness, and we don't know who they are. I would imagine they're veryprominent Republicans, very Republican Democrats, and we are covering up forthem. We got to know what's going on out there, Madam AG. It looks like youwant to say something. I'm going to give the opportunity to address mystatement.

Attorney General Bondi (01:59:11):

I look forward to working with you on any crimes involvingchild sex predators, children, and also cyber crimes. That is a tremendousproblem now throughout our country. AI, you are correct, AI is causing greatproblems online regarding... We're working on that though. AI is an incredibletool, but it also can be fraught with peril with victims of crime. I'veexperienced that with someone I know who we've been trying to help. I lookforward though to working with you on that and also cyber crimes.

Mr. Correa (01:59:43):

And Madam...

Attorney General Bondi (01:59:43):

Can I...?

Mr. Correa (01:59:44):

Please, go ahead.

Attorney General Bondi (01:59:45):

And as I said before, to any victims, we ask them to comeforward to our office and we want to work with them. I have never not workedwith a victim, and I believe I've actually spoken to several of the victimscurrently sitting behind me.

Mr. Correa (02:00:00):

Madam, if I can reclaim my time, I only have a minute. IfI can reclaim my time. I just think we start out by making sure thoseredactions are unredacted, those Epstein files, to make sure that the public,according to the law, following the law, that those names in those files aremade public. We have to make sure we tell those predators there is no place forthem to hide and if they commit the crime, they're going to fry for it. Itstarts with showing us the names of the perpetrators in the Epstein files.

Attorney General Bondi (02:00:34):

May I respond to that?

Mr. Correa (02:00:35):

Sure.

Attorney General Bondi (02:00:36):

Okay. So if any man's name was redacted that should nothave been, we will, of course, unredact it. If a victim's name was unredacted,please bring it to us and we will redact it. We were given 30 days to reviewand redact and unredact millions of pages of documents. Our error rate is verylow, but there are always [inaudible 02:01:06].

Mr. Correa (02:01:06):

The victims are right behind you. We've got to convincethem that we're doing a good job of protecting them.

Attorney General Bondi (02:01:11):

[inaudible 02:01:12] everything we can do for the victims.We will do everything we can.

Mr. Correa (02:01:14):

Chair, I'm out of time.

Mr. Jordan (02:01:15):

Gentleman yields back. The gentleman from California, Mr.Kiley is recognized.

Mr. Kiley (02:01:19):

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Madam AttorneyGeneral. I wanted to return to a point that the chairman raised at thebeginning of this hearing, which is these jurisdictions that refuse to honordetainer requests from immigration and customs enforcement, often calledsanctuary jurisdictions. Now, I know that you are not involved directly inimmigration operations per se, but you do deal with the legal issuessurrounding these jurisdictions.

(02:01:44):

So let's say we have someone who's here illegally who hascommitted a crime that like the thousands of people you mentioned inCalifornia, murderers, sexual predators, drug traffickers. If that individualis in detention in a jurisdiction that has a sanctuary policy where they do nothonor ICE detainers versus in any other jurisdiction where they do, how doesthe nature of apprehending that person, how does the nature of ICE'sinvolvement in that operation, differ in those two circumstances?

Attorney General Bondi (02:02:17):

Well, I believe you've seen that in Minnesota, wherepeople were not cooperating with us. I believe there, a lot of local lawenforcement did want to cooperate. But we are doing everything in our power toarrest and deport illegal criminal aliens, and that is not going to stop underDonald Trump's administration.

(02:02:40):

Why sanctuary cities are so dangerous, what we've seen inMinneapolis. Where do all the criminals go? The gangs, TDA, MS-13, where arethey going to go? They're going to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction because theybelieve they're protected, and that's not fair to the citizens of those cities.

Mr. Kiley (02:02:57):

Yeah. And this is a point that there at least used to be alot of consensus on. The idea that it's better to do a handoff to theimmigration authorities in a custodial setting rather than releasing them wherethey have to be apprehended in the community. This is Alejandro Mayorkas whenhe was before this committee, not exactly a paragon of border security, but hesaid, "I do not consider it in the service of public safety to release anindividual into the community when that individual can be released to immigrationand customs enforcement for prompt removal." Now his words are one thing,his actions are another, but when you have jurisdictions across the country,including my state of California, doing systematically precisely the thing thateven Alejandro Mayorkas said threatens public safety, I mean, what does thatsay to you?

Attorney General Bondi (02:03:44):

It's a danger to the citizens of your community, and thankyou for fighting to protect them.

Mr. Kiley (02:03:49):

Absolutely. And we're having this conversation right nowin relation to Homeland Security funding and I believe there are some commonsense reforms that have been proposed that folks on both sides would agree makesense, but those reforms have to go hand in hand with reforming this recklesspractice of refusing to cooperate, refusing to honor detainers, and declaringoneself to be a sanctuary. So I'm hoping that we can find bipartisan supportfor what has long been a bipartisan principle.

(02:04:17):

I want to go to a second topic, which is the school boardmemo, which I know that you have rescinded. It was initially promulgated byAttorney General Garland when he came into office with President Biden,essentially opening an investigation into parents who were showing up at schoolboard meetings and expressing their views on COVID policies, mass, variousother issues, and using the full apparatus of federal law enforcementcounter-terrorism to go after these parents.

(02:04:51):

Now, he said this was because there was an increase ofthreats, but when even his own FBI director, Christopher Wray, was before thiscommittee, he said there was no evidence of an increase in threats. Yetnevertheless, when I asked him if he regretted the memo, Attorney GeneralGarland said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the memo. Now, I take ityou disagree with that having now rescinded it?

Attorney General Bondi (02:05:14):

Absolutely. That was one of the main focuses of PresidentTrump in this administration. We will protect parents at school boards. We willprotect children in schools. We will protect parents' rights for theirchildren's education in our school system in this country. We will protectChristians. We will protect everyone who wants to freely protest. If Christianswant to protest in front of an abortion clinic without being arrested, theywill do so.

Mr. Kiley (02:05:45):

Thank you very much. And finally, I thank you for yourefforts to step up the detection and rooting out of fraud. My home state isCalifornia. Any idea if there might be any fraud going on in California?

Attorney General Bondi (02:05:57):

Well, we are establishing, as you have heard, a fraudunit, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with that in your state, but theCalvary's coming. And we have Colin McDonald who hopefully will be confirmedsoon. We're working on Minneapolis. I don't know if you were sitting here whenI said that, but California was right up there. I'm sorry to say for both sidesof the aisle that California is right up there with fraud. It's out of control,but we are coming to your rescue. Donald Trump is coming to the rescue.

Mr. Kiley (02:06:24):

Well, thank you very much. And unfortunately, I thinkyou'll find that what's happening in California pales in comparison to what'sbeen going on in Minnesota. Thank you. I yield back.

Mr. Jordan (02:06:31):

Gentleman yields back. The gentleman from Maryland isrecognized.

Speaker 9 (02:06:35):

Actually, I think the gentle lady from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Jordan (02:06:36):

Gentle lady from Pennsylvania is recognized.

Ms. Scanlon (02:06:38):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Bondi, I'm here. On September25th, President Trump signed a memorandum known as NSPM-7, purporting toaddress domestic terrorism, but Americans across the political spectrum wereimmediately alarmed by the memo's blurring of the line between unlawful conductand constitutionally protected speech and activity, as well as its call toinvestigate, prosecute, and dismantle groups that the president and StephenMiller described without evidence as "an organized campaign of radicalleft terrorism."

(02:07:17):

Now, counter-terrorism experts were further alarmed by theadministration's singular focus on left-wing extremism combined with the suddendeletion from the DOJ website of decades of research and law enforcementanalysis, which it concluded that right-wing extremism poses the greatestterrorism threat to Americans. The president's memo broadly and vaguely linksviolent conduct to ideologies, and it targeted specifically anti-American,anti-Christian and anti-capitalist beliefs, as well as "hostility to so calledtraditional American views on family religion and morality."

Speaker 10 (02:08:00):

President Trump has repeatedly and openly, howeverfalsely, tried to brand his political opponents with these sentiments listed inhis memo. But as you know, as a lawyer, holding beliefs that the White Housedisagrees with is not a crime. And the statute defining domestic terrorismrequires criminal acts, not just thoughts and ideas. That's why legal experts,nonprofit leaders, religious freedom and civil rights advocates immediatelyraised the alarm that the new presidential directive was a politically motivatedattack on civil society designed to silence those who disagree with theadministration.

(02:08:37):

So Ms. Bondi, section three of that memo directed you asAttorney General to submit to the President and Stephen Miller a list of groupsor entities whose members are engaged in acts that meet the definition ofdomestic terrorism. And then on December 4th, you directed the FBI to work witha variety of law enforcement entities to compile a list of groups and entitiesengaged in such acts by January 3rd, 2026, and to update that report every 30days thereafter.

(02:09:11):

So can we assume that you or persons under your directionat the Department of Justice have prepared that list of groups or entities whoare designated as domestic terrorist organizations? And I just remind youthat's a yes or no question. Did you prepare the list?

Pam Bondi (02:09:27):

Well, I'm not going to answer yes or no, but what I willsay is I know Antifa is part of that. I will talk to you about that.

Speaker 10 (02:09:33):

Okay. I'm reclaiming my time.

Pam Bondi (02:09:33):

And on February 5th, 2025-

Speaker 10 (02:09:33):

I asked you whether you prepared a list.

Pam Bondi (02:09:33):

An Antifa member was arrested in Minneapolis FederalCourt.

Speaker 10 (02:09:42):

I'm reclaiming my time.

Pam Bondi (02:09:42):

For [inaudible 02:09:44].

Speaker 10 (02:09:42):

Did you have a list-

Pam Bondi (02:09:45):

They ask a question and don't want an answer.

Speaker 10 (02:09:46):

The answer is yes.

Speaker 11 (02:09:48):

[inaudible 02:09:49] gentle lady from Pennsylvania. Gentlelady can proceed.

Speaker 10 (02:09:51):

Okay. So will you commit to providing this committee withany list of organizations that you have recommended be designated as domesticterrorist organizations?

Pam Bondi (02:10:08):

We will comply with the law in all matters.

Speaker 10 (02:10:11):

Will you commit to provide this committee with your listof entities that you recommend be designated as domestic terroristorganizations?

Pam Bondi (02:10:24):

I'm not going to commit to anything to you because youwon't let me answer questions.

Speaker 10 (02:10:27):

Okay. Well then we do understand that your currentposition is that you have a secret list of people or groups that you areaccusing of domestic terrorism, but you won't share it with Congress. And I'dremind you that when the US government designates an entity as a foreignterrorist organization, it must report that to Congress and to the entitybecause the government can make a mistake and the entity has the opportunity tocontest it. So your position seems to be that if you falsely designate an Americanor an American organization as a terrorist group, there's nothing they can doabout it. I think we get it. You don't want to answer the question.

Pam Bondi (02:11:10):

No, you don't get anything regarding public safety.

Speaker 10 (02:11:12):

Thank you.

Pam Bondi (02:11:13):

Nothing.

Speaker 10 (02:11:14):

Thank you for the insult. It's clear you didn't come toCongress prepared to answer questions that the American people have every rightto have answered, but if you were to prepare to answer truthfully, here's whatwe expect the facts to show. The administration is keeping lists of Americanswho the White House says are engaged in domestic terrorism. Those lists couldinclude Americans who have not committed any acts of terrorism, but simplydisagree with this administration, people like Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Andyour list may include clergy, elected officials and members of indivisiblegroups across the country. And those lists likely don't include Proud Boys orOath Keepers who were actually convicted.

Speaker 11 (02:11:57):

Time.

Speaker 10 (02:11:58):

Americans have never tolerated political demagogues whouse the government to punish people on an enemies list. It brought downMcCarthy.

Speaker 11 (02:12:06):

Time of the gentle lady's expired. Time of the gentlelady's expired.

Speaker 10 (02:12:09):

And it will bring down this administration as well.

Speaker 11 (02:12:10):

And you're right.

Speaker 10 (02:12:11):

I yield back.

Speaker 11 (02:12:12):

That's why we're so glad they rescinded the memorandumtargeting parents for goodness sake, as the gentleman from California justpointed out in his five minutes. The gentleman from Kentucky is recognized forfive minutes.

Pam Bondi (02:12:25):

May I respond very briefly to her statement?

Speaker 11 (02:12:28):

I think we can do that probably on one of our members'time.

Pam Bondi (02:12:31):

Okay. Thank you. I don't want that to get away. Thank you.

Speaker 12 (02:12:34):

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Behind me, I have three documentsfrom the DOJ production that are emblematic of the massive failure of the DOJto comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. To my right is an email thatwas sent by the victim's lawyers to the DOJ. It was a list of names not toredact. Or sorry, a list of names not to release. What did the DOJ do with thisemail? They released this email in the document production. Literally the worstthing you could do to the survivors, you did. And they're getting phone calls.A lot of these people didn't want to be known. And we know you touched thedocument because you redacted one name and you redacted the lawyer's name, butyou left the survivor's name there.

(02:13:20):

The next document I want to show you... And that was inthe title, the victim's survivor's names, all right? The title of this one isChild Sex Trafficking, Co-conspirators, Fully Redacted. And by the way, I'mgoing to unredact them here. Les Wexner is in this. Now, your deputy attorneygeneral said, "Oh, well, he appears hundreds of times in the files."But he doesn't appear in this file until I forced you to release it where he'slisted as a co-conspirator. Not to tax evasion, but to child sex trafficking.Not to prostitution, not to money laundering, child sex trafficking.

(02:14:10):

And then finally, what we have here, the third exhibitthat I have is emblematic of the FD302 release. These are the documents that weneed that you're holding onto and over-redacting because they have the names ofthe men who are implicated. How do we know? Because the survivors gavetestimony to the FBI and it's in there. And what happens when you go to theportal at the DOJ to look at what's behind this redaction? Another redaction.So we can't even see them. And then there's some of these files you've pulleddown from the website that we will never see because we can't search theredactions.

(02:14:55):

So I have several questions for you. Who's responsible?Are you able to track who in your organization made this massive failure andreleased the victim's names? Are you able to track who it was that obscured LesWexner's name as a co-conspirator in an FBI document? Do you have that kind ofaccountability?

Pam Bondi (02:15:19):

I believe Wexner's name was listed more than 4,000 timesabout I had-

Speaker 12 (02:15:25):

Yeah, I already told you that. This is where he's listedas a co-conspirator.

Pam Bondi (02:15:28):

Can I finish my answer. Come on, let me finish my answer.We corrected that within 40 minutes. You're acting like everybody's trying tocover up Wexner's name.

Speaker 12 (02:15:40):

Reclaiming my time.

Pam Bondi (02:15:41):

I'm going to answer this question.

Speaker 12 (02:15:41):

Reclaiming my time. Mr. Chairman

Pam Bondi (02:15:44):

This isn't how this works.

Speaker 12 (02:15:45):

Can I have my time back? He was-

Pam Bondi (02:15:46):

Mr. Chairman?

Speaker 11 (02:15:48):

The gentle lady can give her answer. The time belongs tothe gentleman from then on.

Speaker 12 (02:15:51):

I'm reclaiming my time.

Pam Bondi (02:15:52):

Can I give my answer?

Speaker 12 (02:15:53):

So I'm going to put the language of the bill up on thescreen.

Pam Bondi (02:15:57):

Chairman, may I give my answer on that?

Speaker 12 (02:15:59):

Because I have another question. Here's the question.

Pam Bondi (02:16:01):

This is a political joke and I need to give my answer onthat.

Speaker 11 (02:16:03):

Yeah. We'll let the attorney general respond and then thegentleman can move to his next question.

Speaker 12 (02:16:06):

Chairman, it's my time.

Pam Bondi (02:16:07):

Within 40 minutes, you asked me a question.

Speaker 12 (02:16:09):

You can give me-

Pam Bondi (02:16:10):

Within 40 minutes, Wexner's name was added back-

Speaker 12 (02:16:13):

Within 40 minutes of me catching you red-handed.

Pam Bondi (02:16:17):

Red hand. There was one redaction.

Speaker 12 (02:16:20):

Where he's listed as a co-conspirator.

Pam Bondi (02:16:22):

Out of over 4,700. And we invited you in. This guy hasTrump derangement syndrome. You're a failed politician.

Mr. Raskin (02:16:31):

Mr. Chairman, please restore his time and remind thewitness of the rules here.

Speaker 13 (02:16:35):

And so there is no credible information. None. If therewere, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals.

Speaker 12 (02:16:44):

Is that your position as well?

Pam Bondi (02:16:47):

My position is any victim who comes forward, of course, wewould love to hear from them. 1-800-call FBI. Did you ask Merrick Garland thatthe last four years? Did you talk about Epstein?

Speaker 12 (02:17:03):

I'm reclaiming my time.

Pam Bondi (02:17:04):

At all the last-

Speaker 12 (02:17:04):

I'm glad you're asking about Merrick Garland.

Pam Bondi (02:17:06):

You don't get to reclaim time when you don't-

Speaker 12 (02:17:09):

Because this is bigger than Watergate.

Pam Bondi (02:17:10):

When I don't answer a question the way you want.

Speaker 12 (02:17:10):

This goes over four administrations. You don't have to goback to Biden. Let's go back to Obama.

Pam Bondi (02:17:16):

Let's go.

Speaker 12 (02:17:16):

Let's go back to George Bush. This coverup spans decadesand you are responsible for this portion of it.

Pam Bondi (02:17:23):

And that's [inaudible 02:17:24] transparent .

Speaker 12 (02:17:24):

Now I want to know, at what point did the FBI and the DOJdecide that Lex Wexner was not a co-conspirator? Because our Epstein FilesTransparency Act requires you, please put it back on the screen, to release theinternal decision about whether to prosecute him or not. And it's not in thefiles, and it's not in the files for any of these other men.

Speaker 11 (02:17:49):

Time of the gentleman has expired.

Speaker 12 (02:17:50):

Which may she answer?

Pam Bondi (02:17:52):

And he's a hypocrite because he voted against the ban thatwe were talking about on deep fake AI porn. Only two people voted against it,and you were one of them, hypocrite.

Speaker 11 (02:18:05):

The gentleman's time has expired.

Speaker 12 (02:18:07):

She didn't answer the question.

Speaker 14 (02:18:08):

Mr. Chairman, call to order.

Speaker 12 (02:18:10):

Yeah. Mr. Chairman, could she answer the question?

Speaker 15 (02:18:11):

Chairman, I was wondering-

Speaker 11 (02:18:14):

The attorney general's allowed to respond the way shewants to respond to any member's questions, Republican, Democrat.

Speaker 12 (02:18:19):

I have unanimous consent request.

Speaker 11 (02:18:21):

Gentleman's recognized for a UC.

Speaker 12 (02:18:23):

All right. This is an example. I'm submitting these 302forms that are entirely redacted. Even when you go to look at them-

Speaker 11 (02:18:30):

Without objection.

Speaker 12 (02:18:32):

I'm submitting a witness statement that implicates LesWexner.

Speaker 11 (02:18:36):

Without objection.

Speaker 12 (02:18:38):

I'm submitting an article from the New York Times that theDOJ released nude photos and identifiable pictures of the victims.

Speaker 11 (02:18:46):

Without objection.

Speaker 12 (02:18:47):

I'm submitting a letter from A.G. Bondi to Kash Patelimploring him to quit keeping the files when you found out that they werekeeping files from you-

Speaker 11 (02:18:58):

Without objection.

Speaker 12 (02:18:59):

Because they're still redacting files that you-

Mr. Raskin (02:19:01):

Chairman, are we going to recess for votes?

Speaker 11 (02:19:05):

Yes, we are.

Speaker 12 (02:19:05):

I'm submitting for unanimous consent, a document of 17individuals who've resigned because of the Epstein files.

Speaker 11 (02:19:12):

Without objection. Just want to check in on how much timewe have left on votes, but one thing I've learned here of late that they'llwait on us. How much time do we have? Oh, they just called it. Okay. The chairnow recognizes the gentleman from Maryland.

Speaker 16 (02:19:37):

And thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start by saying Iappreciate what you said, Attorney General Bondi, and you've said it to mepersonally. That you take the personal security of every member of Congressseriously and that people can contact you about that. And in these times,that's a very serious matter. So I thank you for that.

(02:19:57):

Article 2, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution is theDomestic Emoluments Clause, and it says that the president is limited to hissalary in office and cannot receive any other money from the federal governmentwhile he's in office. It cannot be increased by $1. This president is the firstpresident in US history who has repeatedly sued the federal government. Suedthe federal government for $230 million for the judicial search warrant atMar-a-Lago, which was perfectly lawful and was never struck down. But now he'ssuing the IRS for $10 billion. He's suing the IRS for $10 billion, which Ithink is around 80% of its annual budget because his tax returns were leakedand they were illegally leaked by a private contractor who actually is inprison now, Charles Littlejohn, but he wants $10 billion.

(02:20:50):

Now, I want to ask you the question of whether you thinkit would violate the domestic emoluments clause for you to settle that $ 10billion case or any of the other claims that the president has made against thegovernment. He himself has remarked, "It's interesting because I'm the onethat makes the deal, right?" And he says, "I kind of have to work itout with myself." Do you think it would violate the domestic emolumentsclause for the president to work out a deal from people who are hissubordinates under his unitary executive theory to get money in one of thesecases?

Pam Bondi (02:21:27):

I'm not going to discuss pending litigation.

Mr. Raskin (02:21:29):

Okay. So theoretically, you're saying because his privacyrights were violated in that tax case, and they were, I'm with the president onthat. I mean, his Mar-a-Lago thing is ridiculous, but there's no doubt that histax returns, despite the fact that he'd promised to release them, despite thefact that every other president released the tax returns, he sufferedembarrassment when it showed that he hadn't paid taxes for several years and hehad a right for that not to happen.

(02:21:55):

Now, I want to turn back to the Epstein survivors becausePresident Trump may have been a little bit embarrassed by the release of thosetax returns. How much do you think the claims of these survivors are worth? Asthe good congressman from Kentucky just pointed out, there were lots ofsurvivors who had decided for reasons of their own never to release theirnames. That determination was represented to people in Congress and we built itinto our federal law that their names could not be released and yet youpublished their names, their phone numbers, their addresses, personallyidentifying information.

(02:22:38):

If Donald Trump can get $10 billion theoretically from theDepartment of Justice, how much should these people get for a far worseviolation of their privacy rights and a far greater danger established to themin their lives?

Pam Bondi (02:22:57):

Do you even know who Chase Mulligan is? You're so obsessedwith ... You don't, do you? Why'd you just make a face?

Mr. Raskin (02:23:02):

I'm going to teach you the rules again. You're theattorney general of the United States. We have rules here.

Pam Bondi (02:23:05):

You're obsessed with him.

Mr. Raskin (02:23:06):

You're the attorney general of the United States. Therules-

Pam Bondi (02:23:08):

You're obsessed with Donald Trump. You have Trumpderangement syndrome.

Mr. Raskin (02:23:11):

Mr. Chairman, I'd like my time restored. I'd like my timerestored.

Pam Bondi (02:23:13):

Chase Mulligan will be sentenced next week in yourdistrict. In your district and you don't even know about it, about keepingchildren safe from online predators.

Speaker 11 (02:23:21):

Time belongs to the gentleman from Maryland. The gentlemancan proceed.

Mr. Raskin (02:23:24):

Yeah. And I want the whole country to look at this becausethis is the attorney general of the United States whose job is law enforcement.We've never had a witness who has misunderstood our rules and been unable toconform his or her conduct to our rules before. We have only five minutes, andso we use our time to ask you specific questions.

Pam Bondi (02:23:45):

How long are you giving me to answer?

Mr. Raskin (02:23:46):

Excuse me, I'm not yielding to you right now. I'd likethat second restored too. So Ms. Bondi, the way it works is we ask you aquestion and you answer it. And if you go off on a wild goose chase, anothertangent and you start reading statistics or you start talking about stuff goingon in our district. And by the way, I invite you to my district. Come to mydistrict, but that's not what we're here to do today. Okay? And you do that,then we are allowed to say we reclaim our time. At that point, you have to bequiet. You have no choice. You have to be quiet. So I hope you understand therule of this board.

(02:24:18):

Now here's what I want to ask you. You're in lawenforcement. We've seen all kinds of evidence of crimes. And when we go over tothe Department of Justice for the four computers for every member of Congress,we see more evidence of crimes. Will you create a joint task force of theDepartment of Justice and governors and state attorney generals and districtattorneys across the country to investigate the crimes that have taken placeagainst these victims and more than 1,000 like them. The DOJ is not doing itsjob. Will you create a task force with state and local law enforcement to makethat happen?

Speaker 11 (02:24:57):

Gentle lady can respond if she wants to.

Pam Bondi (02:25:01):

Thank you, Chairman. He called Chase Mulligan a wild goosechase and didn't even know who he was. He is a defendant in your own districtwho preyed on girls.

Speaker 14 (02:25:11):

Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Raskin (02:25:12):

Well, you know what? If he were part of the Epsteininvestigation, you wouldn't do anything about it.

Pam Bondi (02:25:16):

In social media and online chat rooms and committed sex-tortion,yet he didn't even know in your tiny little district who he was.

Speaker 11 (02:25:24):

The time.

Mr. Raskin (02:25:24):

Mr. Chairman, she's embarrassing you.

Speaker 11 (02:25:26):

The time.

Pam Bondi (02:25:26):

He's about to be-

Mr. Raskin (02:25:26):

This is your committee and she is embarrassing you.

Pam Bondi (02:25:28):

Shame on you.

Speaker 11 (02:25:28):

The time of the gentleman has expired. I would remind thecommittee that last Congress, Secretary Mayorkas was here numerous times and hewouldn't answer our questions even when we sent them to him ahead of time inwriting. So that's what we've had to deal with. I think the Attorney General isdoing just fine. We have votes shortly. I will go to the gentleman fromVirginia and then we will take a break to head to the floor.

Speaker 17 (02:25:53):

I thank the chairman. Attorney General Bondi, thank youfor being here. And I wanted to thank you for your work at DOJ in restoring therule of law, encouraging transparency surrounding Jack Smith's partisaninvestigations into President Trump, declassifying information about the Russiacollusion hoax, cracking down on sanctuary jurisdictions and establishing theNational Fraud Enforcement Division.

(02:26:15):

Let me first go to securing the border and immigrationenforcement. Our new governor has recently rescinded 287 cooperation betweenthe state and ICE. Can you talk about, have you evaluated the public safetyimpact, how that would affect safety in Virginia to withdraw that support andwhat that would do to criminal activity involving illegal immigrants inVirginia?

Pam Bondi (02:26:43):

Yes, it would be detrimental. And as you know,Congressman, one of the top members of MS-13 in the entire country was livingin Virginia in a suburb among all of us. Living not even probably half an houraway from where we are now and the cooperation previously with the governor,with the members of the state of Virginia helped catch him and take him off ourstreets. An illegal MS-13, one of the heads for the entire country was livingin Virginia. And it's a shame that that's happening now. And thank you fortalking about it because we're going to keep America safe. And when people feellike they can flee to these cities and states and be safe, they can't becauseDonald Trump is going to protect Americans. We're going to protect the citizensthere whether or not the governors, the mayors are going to do it or not, butPresident Trump is. We're going to keep Americans safe from violent gangmembers.

Speaker 17 (02:27:55):

We appreciate that.

Pam Bondi (02:27:55):

Like he's been doing this last year.

Speaker 17 (02:27:57):

We appreciate that. We appreciate your work to make thathappen in Virginia and keep Virginia safe. I want to move on to the FraudEnforcement Division that you've established. My understanding is that thisinitiative is intended to centralize, coordinate enforcement of fraud lawsrelated to government programs. You've talked about Minnesota, you've talkedabout California. Would this affect Virginia as well? Because we have fraud inVirginia as well.

Pam Bondi (02:28:20):

Absolutely. And we look forward to working with you.

Speaker 17 (02:28:23):

Would this affect things like long-term careaccountability, senior living facilities engaged in Medicaid fraud, includingsystemic over billing practices and the misappropriation of taxpayer-fundedbenefits?

Pam Bondi (02:28:34):

That is exactly what it's set up to help.

Speaker 17 (02:28:37):

Okay. I know that whether it was related to fraudspecifically or another subject that under the Biden administration, there wasa sitting member of the Virginia General Assembly under investigation. Is thatinvestigation still ongoing? Can you speak to that?

Pam Bondi (02:28:57):

I can't discuss that.

Speaker 17 (02:28:58):

Okay. I'm going to move on to the Second Amendment rightsof law-abiding Americans. Last year, President Trump signed the One BigBeautiful Bill into law, which included the Hearing Protection Act, part of itthat was sponsored by myself and Congressman Clyde. It reduced the NationalFirearms Tax, $200 tax on suppressors and short barred firearms to zero. Andwhile the tax has been eliminated, the NFA's registration and paperworkrequirements were made in effect and your DOJ has said that that would... Eventhough the tax was reduced to zero, that the registration requirement is stillsomehow necessary, even though with regard to Obamacare and the Affordable CareAct, when that tax penalty was reduced to zero, you decided that the mandatewas no longer necessary. How are you justifying the existence of this registry?

Pam Bondi (02:30:02):

Congressman, that's pending litigation right now.

Speaker 17 (02:30:06):

It is. It is. And I hope you would like to reconsider.

Pam Bondi (02:30:08):

Yes, and I can't discuss it.

Speaker 17 (02:30:09):

You would reconsider that. I yield back.

Speaker 11 (02:30:11):

Gentlemen yield? Gentleman yield?

Speaker 17 (02:30:12):

I yield to the chairman.

Speaker 11 (02:30:13):

I think that Attorney General Bondi, why did Jack Smithhave to pay some secret source $20,000 of taxpayer money? Do you know theanswer to that?

Pam Bondi (02:30:25):

I can't discuss anything on that matter, but that's a goodquestion, Chairman Jordan.

Speaker 11 (02:30:30):

Well it's a good question because he subpoenaed just aboutevery Republican in this town, got half the Congress's phone numbers if youwere a Republican.

Pam Bondi (02:30:37):

Republicans.

Speaker 11 (02:30:38):

But he has to pay some secret source a bunch of taxpayermoney. We'd like to know, the committee would like to know how many othersources he paid. Was it more than $20,000? Why he had to do those things. We'dlike to know when you can, if you could get that information to the committee.I think when you think about the guy who was trying to put the President of theUnited States in prison, ridiculous as that whole thing was, we'd kind of liketo know the answer to that if you could. And with that, we're going to stand inrecess. We will go as quickly as we can and vote. We have two quick votes onthe floor and we will be back. There's actually some lunch if you all need itwe have for our members, and since you're back here, you can have some. Wenormally have plenty.

Mr. Raskin (02:31:13):

Mr. Chairman?

Speaker 11 (02:31:13):

We'll take a recess.

Mr. Raskin (02:31:15):

Before you gavel out, can I ask for unanimous consent toenter to a record article entitled Inside Trump's DOJ dated October 16th, 2020?

Speaker 11 (02:31:23):

Without objection, we stand in recess.

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