Washington DC - Former Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday defended the Justice Department's handling of its files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, while acknowledging "redaction errors" in a release that critics say shielded key information while identifying alleged victims.
Bondi was giving evidence to the House Oversight Committee in a transcribed interview rather than a sworn, videotaped deposition, frustrating Democrats and survivors who accuse President Donald Trump's administration of withholding the full record of the disgraced financier's sex trafficking case.
According to prepared remarks obtained by multiple US media outlets, Bondi said the Justice Department had made an "unprecedented commitment to transparency" under her leadership and produced nearly three million pages of material, including videos and images.
"To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act," Bondi said in the statement.
But she also acknowledged flaws in the release.
"There were redaction errors," Bondi said, referring to the process of blacking out legally sensitive or private personal information. "But since day one of this process, this department has been committed to accountability and transparency."
The comments came as Democrats, Epstein survivors, and some Republicans accuse the Trump administration of covering up the full record of the case, despite the Justice Department's insistence that it has released everything it is legally obliged to make public.
Bondi became a central figure in the Epstein saga after saying last year that the late sex offender's so-called client list was on her desk for review. The Justice Department and FBI later said there was no such list and no plans to release further information.
In her prepared statement, Bondi said she did not personally lead every part of the review and had delegated oversight to then-deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, now acting attorney general.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the Justice Department to remove names and identifying information of victims before releasing records, but barred officials from shielding powerful figures mentioned in the files merely because of embarrassment.
Trump administration faces continued accusations of a cover-up
Critics say the department failed on both fronts: it released names and photos of victims who had not previously been publicly identified, while continuing to redact other information that lawmakers argue should have been disclosed.
Bondi expressed sympathy for Epstein's victims, saying she was "deeply sorry" for what they had endured "as a result of that monster."
But survivors gathered outside the hearing room as Bondi entered and called for witnesses in the Epstein investigation to testify under oath and on camera.
The wider controversy has dogged Trump for much of his second term. Trump fired Bondi in April as frustration mounted over her handling of the Epstein files, although she was later named to a presidential science and technology council.
Lawmakers on the Oversight Committee voted in March to subpoena Bondi as part of their Epstein investigation, an unusual rebuke of a sitting Trump administration official by members of the president’s own party.
But the committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, later shifted her appearance from a deposition to a transcribed interview – meaning it will not be videotaped or conducted under oath.
Top Oversight Democrat Robert Garcia came out of the session to accuse the government of continuing a cover-up to protect Trump, who socialized extensively with Epstein for years before the pair were estranged in the mid-2000s.
Garcia said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who accompanied Bondi despite still serving at the Justice Department, had intervened repeatedly to stonewall questions about the president's involvement with the case.
"So the DOJ is in there right now stopping questions about President Trump, and about what happened in the release of these files, and why so many survivors were doxxed, and their information released to the public," he told reporters.