A question from Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York sparked the most contentious exchange of the hearing so far.
Nadler began by discussing the criminal charges brought against New York Attorney General Letitia James and said it was “humiliating” that the Justice Department failed twice to secure indictments against James after her criminal charges were dismissed.
“It’s clear that you were simply going after her because she held President Trump accountable,” Nadler said.
Nadler then asked Bondi how many of Epstein’s co-conspirators have been indicted, after which the exchange dissolved into chaos.
Bondi again accused Democrats of engaging in “theatrics” and failing to allow her to answer their questions because “they don’t like the answer, because it’s honest.”
When Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat, jumped in to ensure Democrats had their full five minutes for questioning, Bondi retorted, “you don’t tell me anything, washed up, loser lawyer.”
With Nadler’s time expired, a GOP member gave Bondi time to respond. She launched into a fierce defense of Mr. Trump and said Democrats should apologize to the president for impeaching him twice during his first term.
“You sit here and you attack the president and I am not going to have it. I’m not going to put up with it,” she said.
Bondi said the Trump administration released more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein’s case and praised the president for signing into law the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, required the Justice Department to make the material public by Dec. 19.
“He is the most transparent president in the nation’s history,” the attorney general said.
Bondi then attacked Democrats for failing to ask Garland about Epstein and pivoted to talking about the stock market and the economy.
