Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi delivered a sharp condemnation of convicted trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell during a nearly four-hour closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, saying Maxwell deserves to “die in prison” and describing her as especially evil because of her role in helping Jeffrey Epstein abuse victims. Bondi’s remarks were later relayed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who said Bondi viewed Maxwell as worse than Epstein in some ways because she helped recruit and procure victims. The comments drew support from some Epstein survivors, who were present at the Capitol and have pushed lawmakers to examine how the government handled the case.
During the hearing, Bondi declined to answer questions related to President Donald Trump, saying she appeared voluntarily and would not respond to Trump-related inquiries. She also said she did not personally oversee every part of the Justice Department’s Epstein-record review, instead delegating that work to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Bondi acknowledged there were “redaction errors” in the public release of records that exposed private information and images connected to survivors. Afterward, she defended Blanche on social media, praising his management of what she called a difficult and demanding task.
The interview prompted renewed criticism from Democrats. Ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia said Republicans should have placed Bondi under oath and recorded the session. He also said Bondi refused to explain why Maxwell was moved to a lower-security federal facility and would not discuss Trump. Rep. Melanie Stansbury accused the Justice Department of helping block answers about the handling of the case and Bondi’s communications with Trump.
The congressional interview comes amid broader controversy over the release of Epstein-related files. The records were required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan measure signed by Trump on November 19, 2025. Bondi had earlier suggested in February 2025 that an Epstein “client list” was on her desk, but the Justice Department later said in a July 2025 memo that no such list existed and that no further disclosure was warranted. That conclusion caused backlash and fueled new demands for transparency.
The first major document release came on December 19, 2025, when the Justice Department published hundreds of thousands of pages, including previously unseen photographs and heavily redacted material. A second release on January 30 added more than 3 million pages, along with thousands of videos and images. Even so, the department has said it still holds more than 6 million Epstein-related documents, meaning a large portion remains undisclosed. Lawmakers and survivors continue to argue that the government has not fully met its obligations under the transparency law.
Committee chair Rep. James Comer said he plans to release the full transcript of Bondi’s interview and warned that lying to Congress is a felony. He also said the government has failed survivors across multiple presidential administrations.
