WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi went on offense Tuesday as Senate Democrats grilled her about the Jeffrey Epstein case and other matters — with Bondi at one point suggesting Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island might be “concerned” about embarassing links to the late pedophile.
Bondi sought to turn the tables on Whitehouse and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after facing months of criticism over her July 6 memo recommending against further public disclosures in the notorious sex trafficker’s case.
“How many of those Treasury [Suspicious Activity Reports] did you or [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel investigate?” Whitehouse asked Bondi about transactions made by Epstein that had been flagged by banks.
The attorney general snapped back: “Senator, I’m not sure if you’re concerned because you took money — I believe, did you? — from [LinkedIn co-founder] Reid Hoffman, one of Epstein’s closest confidants, not only once, but twice in 2018 and 2024.”
She added: “Did you ask [former Attorney General] Merrick Garland any of this over the last four years when he sat before you?”
Whitehouse plowed on: “There’s been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein’s safe or premises or otherwise?”
Bondi blasted him again: “You know, Senator Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks, once again trying to slander President Trump left and right — when you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants … and the senator sitting right next to you [Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois] tried to block the flight logs from being released.”
When Durbin spoke, Bondi pointed out that in 2023 the committee’s top Democrat blocked an attempt by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to force the disclosure of Epstein’s flight logs.
“Why was the July 7 memo unsigned?” Durbin asked.
Bondi retorted: “Why did you fight to not disclose the flight logs, Senator Durbin?”
“I did not refuse,” he claimed. “One of the senators here wished to produce those logs, and I asked her to put it in writing, and she never did.”
“You know that I submitted that in writing,” Blackburn cut in, “and you continue to misrepresent that, and I am not going to let that record stand.”
Later, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Bondi about various corporate mergers, she denounced him as “someone who lied about being in the military just be to a senator” and jabbed: “I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service.”
Elsewhere, when Whitehouse asked about what happened to $50,000 in cash that went to Tom Homan as part of an FBI sting operation last year, Bondi replied: “Senator, I would be more concerned if I were you, when you talk about corruption and money, when you push for legislation that would subsidize your wife’s company.”
The Rhode Island Democrat scoffed at the suggestion of malfeasance involving his wife’s receipt of nearly $2.7 million from the federally funded Ocean Conservancy, calling it “completely irrelevant far-right internet talking points.”
President Trump has tried to move on from the Epstein controversy, calling it a Democratic “hoax” designed to smear him for his socializing with the disgraced financier in the 1990s and early 2000s.
A bipartisan cohort in Congress has continued to seek more information about Epstein’s links to powerful men such as former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, former Harvard President Larry Summers and Microsoft chief Bill Gates — with subpoenas and ensuing public disclosures by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was wide-ranging, covering topics including Trump’s crime-focused deployment of federal agents and the National Guard to major cities and the just-reported FBI surveillance of eight Republican senators, as well as the effects of the partial government shutdown on federal worker paychecks.
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