The US Attorney General is accused of "cover-up and negligence" in her handling of Epstein's files

LondonIn a heated appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi faced harsh criticism from Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday. The opposition accused her of corruption, negligence, and of turning the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into a political tool for President Donald Trump's vendetta. Bondi, for her part, asserted that Trump is the most transparent president in the country's history for having released the documents about the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

The session, held at the Capitol in Washington, was attended by survivors of the abuse and the financier's sex traffickingThis has added drama and gravity to the situation, and also made the recriminations sound even harsher. These recriminations have included questions from Democrats about whether Bondi's 18 years as a prosecutor in Florida had prepared him to protect victims or to "clean up" Donald Trump's name. This assumption stems from the fact that the DOJ assigned "more than 500 lawyers and reviewers" to the task of "cleaning up" the documents before making them public at the end of January.

"You're playing the Jekyll and Hyde," Georgia Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat, snapped. "You're nice to Republicans but you transform with Democrats. Epstein's survivors are here; why don't you turn around and apologize to them for revealing their identities?" Among the names mentioned, which the DOJ allegedly initially concealed, are "powerful predators" with financial or personal ties to President Trump's inner circle, such as the Sultan. Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of DP World, a Dubai-based multinational logistics company. Despite Bondi's calls for transparency regarding the president, the Justice Department has only released slightly more than 3 million of the 6 million documents, Johnson also denounced.

Despite the accusations, Bondi defended her department's handling of the case. However, several victims have reported that the names of alleged sex traffickers are extensively redacted, while survivors' personal data has been exposed. The Attorney General expressed her "regret" for the suffering of the victims but refused to apologize for not meeting personally with those present at the hearing. When Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal asked her for the number of accomplices charged, Bondi refused to answer. The figure is obvious, in any case. So far, the only person convicted in connection with Epstein's network is his former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, who has expressed her willingness to tell everything she knows in change to the president's pardonThe debate has been so chaotic that Bondi has defended his actions with far-fetched arguments about the state of the economy and the Republican administration's "law and order" policies. "The Dow Jones has surpassed 50,000 points; Americans' pension funds are pouring in, they're better than ever," he stated, to the perplexity of several legislators, who questioned the relevance of this data in a court hearing focused on the Epstein case. Lack of control over ICE

Tensions have escalated further as Democrats have accused the DOJ of lacking control over ICE operations, Trump's immigration enforcement agency, which they claim operates "on its own" and has carried out "two executions" in Minnesota without any investigation by the District Attorney's office, referring toThe murders of Alex Pretti and Renee GoodBondi, in fact, has been accused of trying to investigate the victims' families instead of the perpetrators, a comparison that some committee members have labeled "institutional cruelty." The attorney general then turned on her, saying, "I'm not going to stoop to her level. I'm not going to stoop to this woman's level," referring to Jayapal's direct accusation. Trying to shift the focus away from the investigation into the pedophile, the attorney general also defended her department's actions in other politically significant cases. And, aligned with the committee chairman, Republican Jim Jordan, she called for an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan. Bondi reiterated that "no one is above the law," but avoided confirming whether she has any open cases against him. The John Brennan case centers on a criminal investigation to determine whether the CIA director between 2013 and 2017, under the presidency of Barack Obama, manipulated or interfered in any way in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and in possible collusion, alleged coordination with the Kremlin, and the existence of compromising material. Similarly, both Bondi and Jordan have defended the charges against figures such as... journalist Don LemonAccording to Bondi, Lemon met with protesters at a Minnesota shopping mall before heading to St. Paul Church to disrupt a service. "Having the right to protest doesn't give you the right to enter a church and trample on other people's religious freedom," he stated in defense of the formal charges against the journalist. However, Lemon was simply reporting live on a protest against ICE actions. Bondi's appearance makes it clear that the Justice Department is, now more than ever, at the center of the political storm in the United States.