Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said Sunday that he did not approve of how Attorney General Pam Bondi conducted herself over the Department of Justice’s release of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a combative hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“I don’t think she did very well,” Massie told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “She came with a book full of insults, one for each congressperson. She obviously had one for me.”
Asked by Raddatz if he had confidence in Bondi, Massie said he didn’t think Bondi had confidence in herself.
“She wasn’t confident enough to engage in anything but name-calling in a hearing,” Massie said. “So no, I don’t have confidence in her. She hasn’t got any sort of accountability there at the DOJ.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., appears on ABC News’ “This Week” on Feb. 15, 2026.
ABC News
During Massie’s line of questioning in Wednesday’s hearing, Bondi said the congressman had “Trump derangement syndrome,” an attack President Donald Trump occasionally wages against those who criticize him.
At another point, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked the group of Epstein victims sitting behind Bondi to raise their hand if they have not been able to meet with Bondi’s Justice Department. All of the survivors present raised their hand. Bondi did not turn to look at those victims, even after Jayapal asked her to, calling it “theatrics.”
Massie called Bondi’s decision to not look at the survivors “cold” and said that he thought she was “afraid” to do so.
Wednesday’s hearing came after the Justice Department released over 3 million pages of files from the Epstein case. The release of the files has triggered a wave of criticism and resignations across the world. In the U.S., several powerful figures were named — but not accused of wrongdoing — in the latest file release.
Massie has accused the Justice Department of exposing victim identities in some cases while over-redacting powerful men and possible co-conspirators to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation in others.
“[Bondi] admitted that 40 minutes after I pointed out to the DOJ that they had over redacted some of the documents, they did unredact those documents,” Massie said. “It’s clear that their work is not done here yet.”
Shortly after the release of the files, the Justice Department last week allowed members of Congress to view versions of the files with fewer redactions.
After reviewing the documents, Massie claimed the DOJ had improperly redacted information from an undated document that appeared to contain 20 names and corresponding photographs.
Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the House Judiciary Committee, February 11, 2026 in Washington.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
In the publicly available version of the document posted to the DOJ website, the only two names and photos originally visible were those of Epstein and Maxwell.
After Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who has led the effort for the release of the files with Massie, expressed concerns about the redactions, Massie wrote in an X post Tuesday that the DOJ “promptly unredacted the men’s names as well as several women in the list that we didn’t flag.”
Massie also posted the less-redacted version of the document, which contained an additional 16 unredacted names of both men and women.
Khanna then read the names of the four men listed on the document on the floor of the House while also calling out the DOJ for redactions to other specific documents that concealed the names of Leslie Wexner and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, whose names appear unredacted hundreds of times elsewhere in the DOJ disclosures.
Sulayem, the billionaire CEO of logistics giant DP World, resigned following the disclosure of his communications with Epstein “effective immediately,” the company said in an announcement. A company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
A legal representative for Wexner told ABC News, “The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner’s legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect. Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.”
After the Guardian reported Friday that the DOJ said the four men named on the House floor were part of a photo lineup arranged by federal prosecutors and had “no apparent connection to Epstein,” Khanna put the blame on the DOJ.
“I wish DOJ had provided that explanation earlier instead of redacting their names. They have failed to protect survivors, created confusion for innocent men, and have protected rich and powerful abusers,” he posted on X. “We must have full transparency.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche meets with reporters as the Justice Department announces the release of three million pages of documents in the latest Jeffrey Epstein disclosure in Washington, Jan. 30, 2026.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
In a written statement to ABC News, Khanna contended that the DOJ “failed to provide any explanation for their arbitrary redactions” to the documents and then removed the redactions “without explaining the context that Massie and I had asked for.”
“It’s sad that the DOJ has created confusion that has protected the rich and powerful, exposed survivors, and exposed men not involved with Epstein’s crimes,” Khanna said.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday said in a post on X that Massie and Khanna “forced the unmasking of completely random people selected years ago for an FBI lineup- men and women.”
Asked by Raddatz about Blanche’s accusation, Massie said Blanche had unredacted the names but didn’t provide any context around them.
“Well, three hours before Todd Blanche himself unredacted those names, I told him in an X post — which I know he read because he reposted it — that those may be men in a lineup. And then I went on TV and said, ‘Those may be men in a lineup.’ And it was actually the DOJ who released those names, which is fine, but they omitted the context that I provided, which is these may be in a lineup.
Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna arrive at the Department of Justice office building to view unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files, in Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 2026.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters
On Saturday, Bondi and Blanche sent a six-page report, obtained by ABC News, to the chairmen and top Democrats on the Senate and House judiciary committees providing an explanation for redactions that included a list of government officials and “politically exposed persons” referenced in the released files.
“Names appear in the files released under the Act in a wide variety of contexts. For example, some individuals had extensive direct email contact with Epstein or Maxwell while other individuals were mentioned only in a portion of a document (including press reporting) that on its face is unrelated to the Epstein and Maxwell matters,” the report said.
The report does not provide context for those listed in it. The list of individuals includes President Donald Trump, current administration officials, former presidents, musicians, pop culture figures, lawmakers and Britain’s royal family.
Massie said he still is not satisfied.
“I know the DOJ wants to say they’re done with this document production. The problem is they’ve taken down documents before we were able to go over to the DOJ and look at the unredacted versions,” Massie said.
Massie, who mostly votes with Trump, said that he thought Merrick Garland, former President Joe Biden’s attorney general, performed better in terms of optics when he appeared before the committee.
ABC News’ Jim Hill, Allison Pecorin and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
