U.S. House Democrats accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of putting Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s victims at risk and ignoring their testimony during a heated Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday, where she defended the Justice Department\u2019s recent release of millions of records related to the now-deceased disgraced financier.<\/p>\n
Two representatives from Bondi\u2019s home state had thoughts.<\/p>\n
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat representing South Florida, pointed out inconsistencies in the Trump administration\u2019s public statements regarding the files. GOP Rep. Laurel Lee, who represents portions of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, defended Bondi\u2019s record on child abuse cases.<\/p>\n
Bondi, a Tampa Bay native, spent eight years as Florida\u2019s attorney general, from 2011 to 2019. During those years, she promised to stand up to human traffickers and protect victims. Before her tenure as state attorney general, she specialized in prosecuting child abuse cases at the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about Bondi\u2019s performance Wednesday \u2014 and how her time in Florida plays a role.<\/p>\n
A 2014 video<\/a> of Bondi, shot as she campaigned for her second term as Florida\u2019s attorney general, made the rounds on social media platforms Wednesday following her testimony.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll fight to put human trafficking monsters where they belong: behind bars,\u201d she says, planting her hands on her hips with an assertive nod.<\/p>\n The ad emphasized Bondi\u2019s 2014 creation of the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking, which involved prosecutors, law enforcement, lawmakers, nonprofit groups and state agency officials.<\/p>\n At the time, Bondi was raising the alarm about Florida\u2019s top-three ranking nationally in calls for help for human trafficking.<\/p>\n She told WFSU News<\/a> that she was partnering with truckers and emergency room doctors to recognize signs of human trafficking. She called out massage and nail salons as hotbeds for trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew we needed all hands on deck,\u201d she said in the ad.<\/p>\n After years of standing tall against human trafficking in Florida, Bondi faced accusations this week from House Democrats of failing to protect Epstein\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n Bondi said that she was \u201cdeeply sorry for what any victim\u201d has experienced.<\/p>\n But Democrats at multiple points invited her to apologize for the Justice Department\u2019s release of the records and the redactions within them. Lawyers for Epstein\u2019s victims have said the latest files include email addresses and nude photos in which the names and faces of potential victims could be identified, according to BBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bondi dodged, instead rebuking House Democrats.<\/p>\n Moskowitz and Lee are the only two Floridians on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n Lee, a friend of Bondi\u2019s<\/a>, used her time to reiterate statistics Bondi highlighted regarding the Justice Department\u2019s prosecution of child predators.<\/p>\n The Justice Department, Lee said, has located \u201cmore than 6,000 child victims of trafficking and exploitation, arrested 1,700 child predators and apprehended more than 300 human traffickers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThose aren\u2019t just statistics,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThose are precious lives that your department and the men and women of federal law enforcement have saved.\u201d<\/p>\n Moskowitz, who\u2019s considered vulnerable<\/a> in his 2026 race for reelection, started off on a cordial note with Bondi, praising her aid after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in his hometown of Parkland. He also noted that Bondi\u2019s Justice Department \u201cprosecuted to the fullest extent of the law\u201d a constituent who wrote that he planned to kill him<\/a> in late 2024.<\/p>\n Moskowitz proceeded to blast what he characterized as inconsistencies in the Trump administration\u2019s statements about the files.<\/p>\n Moskowitz said FBI Director Kash Patel told Congress that President Donald Trump\u2019s name appears less than 100 times in the files. \u201cWe now know that\u2019s not true,\u201d Moskowitz said. \u201cTrump\u2019s name appears more times in the Epstein files than God\u2019s name appears in the book about God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is funny about mocking the Bible and holding up the Bible,\u201c Bondi said. \u201dThat\u2019s all I have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not mocking the Bible,\u201d Moskowitz shot back.<\/p>\n Bondi gained favor as one of Trump\u2019s early supporters in Florida while she was serving as the state\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s unclear where she stands now with Trump amid repeated criticism from the right and left over her handling of the Epstein files since early in her tenure<\/a> at the Justice Department. The Wall Street Journal reported last month<\/a> that Trump has complained about Bondi \u201crepeatedly\u201d to aides.<\/p>\n Bondi called Trump \u201cthe greatest president in American history\u201d and praised him extensively during her testimony Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone knows that. This has been the most transparent presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Ted Lieu, D-California, accused Bondi of lying under oath, arguing Trump\u2019s appearances in the files and uncorroborated tips against him are evidence of possible crimes. Trump has never been charged with a crime in connection with Epstein and denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Two Republicans voiced concerns about the Justice Department\u2019s release of victims\u2019 identifying information in the latest tranche of files.<\/p>\n Bondi told Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, that her department had faced a time crunch in providing the files by Congress\u2019 deadline of Dec. 19. The Trump administration provided most of those files more than a month after that deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did the best we could,\u201d Bondi said.<\/p>\n Things got more heated when GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a frequent Trump critic, argued the Justice Department over-redacted some information while accidentally releasing victims\u2019 names.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re a failed politician,\u201d Bondi replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. House Democrats accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of putting Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s victims at risk and ignoring their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[409,28,30,29,74032,33612,74031,3854,9450,33636,8875,411],"class_list":["post-153448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-donald-trump","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-house-democrats","tag-house-judiciary-committee","tag-human-traffickers","tag-jared-moskowitz","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-justice-department","tag-laurel-lee","tag-pam-bondi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}