Bondi’s Hearing Sparks Backlash Over Epstein File Handling (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics. Who he was, he's about to be done.

[00:00:05] Speaker 2: This is your committee and she is embarrassing you.

[00:00:08] Speaker 1: Have you apologized to President Trump? You all should be apologizing. You sit here and you attack the president and I am not going to have it.

[00:00:19] Speaker 3: It almost seems like something out of a reunion episode of a Bravo show or something, but it's interesting because Pam Bondi actually, to be honest, has not really been around all that much. When we've been talking about the Epstein files, the person they've been putting out is Todd Blanche and now she's there on Capitol Hill and seems to be putting on a show of defiance. But I think the real question is, over what? Over finding out the truth about a child sex ring? It just seems like the wrong attitude for this issue.

[00:00:51] Speaker 4: Listen, I'm an institutionalist. I want there to be some iota of respect for the institution of Congress. I think this kind of performative theatrics, she says she's not gonna get in the gutter for her theatrics or somebody else's theatrics. Everything she did today was performative. And I say this as somebody who has known Pam Bondi for many years. I knew her back in Florida when she was attorney general. I don't think this served anybody. I don't think these shouting matches, and let's just be honest about it. When Democrats were in power in Congress, the shouting matches still went on. When Republicans are in power, the shouting matches still go. These congressional hearings have really degraded into horrible things.

[00:01:38] Speaker 3: I don't know if we've seen anything like this. Regardless of political party, even Trump's other attorney generals, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, I don't know.

[00:01:48] Speaker 4: I don't recall. The part that really bothered me today, and I give MAGA a lot of credit. The one thing I give them credit for is not letting go of the Epstein files bone. They just never did. And there was people like Nancy Mays, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who defied Donald Trump and voted to release these files, who end the MAGA blogosphere and podcast universe who never let it go. That being said, I thought today, Pam Bondi having those victims, those survivors there, and the family of the survivors that have died, and not having the common courtesy of at the very least turning around and acknowledging their presence. And I do think, I do think those survivors are owed an apology by four administrations. And she is right that Mary Garland should have answered questions. But right now, today, this is her DOJ. It is up to her to prosecute if there's prosecutable crimes. It is up to her to release all the files and comply with the law that was passed. It is up to her to give justice and closure to those survivors. It was so shameful to me that those survivors got told and asked, raise your hand if you have called the DOJ and offered to testify. They all raised their hands, and none had been contacted by this DOJ, which is run by Pam Bondi, a woman from Florida who knows who Epstein is. That is damn disgusting and shameful.

[00:03:15] Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, pick up on that, because I think the conversation today, I've been watching all the news, has been about the theatrics that are, that were happening on Capitol Hill. But the reality is, the real conversation which we talk about is the survivors. The conversation of how brave it is for them to even have been there. One in five women in America have experienced some sort of sexual assault. The reality is, this gives us the complete picture of what this administration is. They will do whatever to protect their sexual assaulter-in-chief, who was found liable for sexual assault before. The reality is, we're not having this conversation that protects women. It continues to perpetuate this situation, and this culture in America, where it makes women hard to come forward and actually say, this person did something extremely wrong to me, and that's the conversation we should be having, but I'm not surprised that this administration is deflecting from it, because let's look at the first Trump administration, when Kavanaugh was, when the hearings around Kavanaugh, and Professor Ford actually was brave enough to share her story.

[00:04:16] Speaker 3: Even if we put the Trump of it aside for a second, there were still some really bizarre moments today. This is an interaction between Pam Bondi and Tom Massey, and he's asking her why the DOJ hasn't, or didn't prosecute some people who are named in the Epstein files as being co-conspirators, and here's how she responded.

[00:04:38] Speaker 6: Are you able to track who it was that obscured Les Wexner's name as a co-conspirator in an FBI document? Chairman, may I give my answer on that?

[00:04:48] Speaker 1: Here's the question. This is a political joke, and I need to give my answer on that.

[00:04:53] Speaker 7: We'll let the Attorney General respond, and then the gentleman can move to his next question. Chairman, it's my time.

[00:04:57] Speaker 1: Within 40 minutes, you asked me a question. You can give me. Within 40 minutes, Wexner's name was added back in.

[00:05:03] Speaker 6: Within 40 minutes of me catching you red-handed.

[00:05:06] Speaker 1: Red-handed, there was one redaction out of over 4,700. Where he's listed as a co-conspirator. And we invited you in. Show the video. This guy has Trump derangement syndrome. He needs to, you're a failed politician.

[00:05:21] Speaker 3: Again, I just don't know who that serves, Scott. I mean, literally, on that document, the name that is blacked out says co-conspirator. That should be an obvious non-redaction. And to not even acknowledge, I think that's a pretty big mistake. To not even acknowledge that, I think, and then make it about Thomas Massey and his relationship with Trump or whatever, seems to obscure the bigger issue, which is that there are potential perpetrators, alleged perpetrators, who are still being protected.

[00:05:54] Speaker 2: Well, look, I don't know how the redactions are made or not made. And look, obviously it was brought up and then they unredacted it. And it's three and a half million documents. And I have always wondered how in the world do you ever get it perfect? And I've also wondered, you know, the danger of accidentally or whatever, putting people's names out there who were victims, who shouldn't have their names out there. Anytime you're dumping this many documents, it's been worrisome. All of that having been said, this hearing today to me, look, I get the desire to fight because, and I agree with Anna actually, these hearings are basically people show up, they make speeches, then they give the witness 10 seconds to respond, then they yell at the witness. It's been going on for a long time. It makes these hearings useless. That having been said, at the DOJ, I think if I were advising them, I would advise them to do it more like Scott Besant handles his hearings. It's not a lot of performative. It's not a lot of theatrics. He remains cool. He is in command of the facts. And that's how he chooses to do it. They come after him the same way, but he has a different style of how he carries himself and how he presents himself. I think that truthfully better serves the administration because it shows more confidence in what you're doing as opposed to just the fighting and the back and forth.

[00:07:13] Speaker 3: She must be doing it because she thinks somebody likes it.

[00:07:16] Speaker 8: Exactly. I mean, Besant has the benefit of the kind of a financial view, which can be argued in multiple ways and you can have facts. The facts are just not on their side in these particular hearings. We saw Patel, now we've seen Bondi. The New York Times called this a stall and brawl strategy. I think that is a perfect description of what it is because we see people constantly contorting themselves to try to defend the indefensible. They deflect instead of answering questions directly. They try to substitute passion for truth. They try to talk fast rather than straight talk. And that is all for one person only because it is a person who likes it, and that is Donald Trump. And so all of this genuflecting, I feel like every one of these people should have bloody knees because they are genuflecting to this man all the time.

[00:08:16] Speaker 4: But you know, if nothing else, she should have turned around to those survivors and said, my DOJ, we should have contacted you. I'm sorry we didn't. My DOJ will be on it and we will be contacting you and getting your stories. That's just unacceptable.

[00:08:31] Speaker 3: Let me show you this image. This is Pan Bondi's notes. It was captured by a photographer and it shows that they had taken over at the DOJ notes of what members, in this case, it was Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, what they searched when they went into the DOJ to look at the Epstein files. And I don't know, what does that tell you, Chris, about what the priorities were going into this hearing on the Bondi side of things?

[00:08:58] Speaker 7: I just totally agree with Anna. I think that we've absolutely lost what this is about. This should not be political. This really shouldn't. These women were victims of sexual assault and we are continually just brushing over that for theater. And a number of their names were released here. They were victimized again. And I've seen this in my job a number of times. And we keep forgetting this over and over again. But then when the Attorney General gets up there and just wants to combat and just wants to yell, it seemed a lot more to me like an interview for the White House than it did, rather than trying to actually address the underlying problem. I mean, when you have a Republican like Massey saying, hey, listen, why aren't you going after these people? Why are you redacting names that say conspirator? And then you have Democrats on the other hand saying this, you have lots of Democrats in these files, you have lots of Republicans in these files, but we're forgetting all these women that are sitting right behind you. And I totally agree with Anna. Just, I don't understand why you can't start a hearing and just simply say, I'm sorry. I am sorry about not only what you have gone through, but I'm also sorry that my department released your names publicly.

[00:10:10] Speaker 5: Well, that is not a big ask. Well, Pam Bondi has clearly shown us that she has no soul and does not literally care about people's experiences. And that's why we couldn't get in. I wouldn't have expected that from her.

[00:10:21] Speaker 4: It was also absolutely ridiculous. First, she was being very inconsistent with what Todd Blanche has said about some of these, in some of these answers. But it was ridiculous for her to say that she had nothing to do and no knowledge about the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is a monster and should be in the worst possible prison, not a prison camp. And that she doesn't say, I disagree with what happened and I think she should be sent back to where she was.