What to Know
US Attorney General Pam Bondi defended her much-criticized handling of the so-called Epstein files before a congressional committee on Wednesday.
During a heated hearing in the House of Representatives, Bondi admitted that some of the names of victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had been published “inadvertently,” but said these were immediately redacted after the Department of Justice was notified.
In mid-December, the department began publishing investigation files from the Epstein case. Shortly afterwards, more than a dozen files disappeared again.
Bondi’s deputy, Todd Blanche, said at the time that the sudden deletion had been made at the request of those affected. The removed photos showed potential victims who had not previously been identified, he said.
The US financier Epstein operated an abuse ring for years, with many young women and minors falling victim.
Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin criticized the department’s failure to redact the names of victims, despite the names of perpetrators and accomplices having been redacted.
While some victims had spoken publicly about the abuse, many had not, he said.
“Many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends, but you published their names, their identities, their images on 1000s of pages for the world to see,” Raskin said.
In addition, he said the department had released just 3 million documents, photos and videos from the files, while Congress had ordered it to release 6 million.
His party colleague Dan Goldman also slammed Bondi and her department for the “improper redactions,” which he said were used “to protect [US President] Donald Trump and other predators associated with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Goldman said these errors could not have been due to a lack of time. Bondi’s office took 75 days to release the files, despite a deadline of 30 days.
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dpa; (TNS) | ©2026 dpa GmbH. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
