{"id":684807,"date":"2026-06-04T23:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684807\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:40:11","slug":"pam-bondi-claims-todd-blanche-was-in-charge-of-entire-release-of-epstein-files-pam-bondi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/684807\/","title":{"rendered":"Pam Bondi claims Todd Blanche was \u2018in charge\u2019 of \u2018entire release\u2019 of Epstein files | Pam Bondi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former attorney general Pam Bondi<\/a> told lawmakers that Todd Blanche, the man Donald Trump<\/a> has lined up to replace her, was \u201cin charge\u201d of the US Department of Justice\u2019s controversial handling of the Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> case.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the House oversight and reform committee, which is investigating the late financier and convicted sex offender, Bondi also said she was \u201cnot certain of the extent\u201d that Trump knew about the crimes of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>, the longtime associate of Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking crimes, before they became public.<\/p>\n

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, claimed in a statement on Thursday that Trump had been \u201ctotally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein\u201d when contacted for comment on Bondi\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n

Blanche, who served as Bondi\u2019s deputy at the justice department, was responsible for the \u201centire release of the Epstein files\u201d, Bondi claimed, according to a transcript released by the committee on Thursday. Blanche was appointed as acting attorney general following Bondi\u2019s ouster, and Trump said this week he planned to nominate him for the role permanently<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, Bondi faced questions about the justice department\u2019s handling of the Epstein<\/a> files during her tenure. Her appearance came as the department continues to face scrutiny<\/a> over the files and its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the release of Epstein-related records held by the department. The department has maintained<\/a> it acted in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n

Several lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, as well as survivors of Epstein\u2019s abuse, have criticized some of the department\u2019s actions and raised concerns<\/a> over certain redactions and the disclosure of sensitive personal information in the files.<\/p>\n

In her opening statement<\/a> and throughout her testimony, Bondi defended the justice department\u2019s handling of the records under her leadership, at the same time working to distance herself from the release and review of the files, saying that she did not \u201clead every aspect\u201d of the department\u2019s effort, but that it was Blanche who oversaw it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files,\u201d she told lawmakers on 29 May<\/a>. In her opening statement, she also said that she did not \u201cconduct that document review myself\u201d and told the panel that she \u201cdelegated oversight over this process\u201d to Blanche.<\/p>\n

Bondi acknowledged \u201cthere were redaction errors\u201d in the release, but insisted that \u201csince day one of this process, this department has been committed to accountability and transparency\u201d.<\/p>\n

During a break in questioning last week, several Democratic lawmakers told reporters<\/a> that Bondi was telling them that it was Blanche \u201cthat was leading the Epstein investigation and quite frankly, all of the mistakes that we saw, the redactions, not protecting survivors, she continues to push that back on to the acting AG Todd Blanche\u201d.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Bondi pushed back on that characterization in a social media<\/a> post, calling it \u201cNOT TRUE\u201d, and said that she \u201cpraised Acting AG Blanche\u2019s management of this Herculean task\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the transcript, Bondi can be seen making the claims the Democrats had made during the break, and denying she was \u201cblaming anything on Todd\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd Blanche is one of the most highly ethical individuals I know, and I think he is making an incredible acting attorney general,\u201d she said in her testimony. \u201cAnd he managed this investigation \u2013 and it was a Herculean task \u2013 with very little error.\u201d<\/p>\n

If formally nominated by Trump to be attorney general on a permanent basis, Blanche would require confirmation from the US Senate.<\/p>\n

During Bondi\u2019s testimony last week, she also told lawmakers that she learned of the controversial prison transfer of Maxwell through news reports \u201cafter it happened\u201d, claiming: \u201cI had nothing to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Maxwell should receive a pardon, Bondi replied \u201cno\u201d, adding that Maxwell was a \u201cmonster\u201d. \u201cI believe she should die in prison,\u201d said Bondi.<\/p>\n

Throughout the interview, Bondi also declined to discuss any conversations with Trump, saying she would not comment on discussions she has had with the US president.<\/p>\n

In one exchange, lawmakers asked Bondi whether upon taking office \u201cany victims or victims\u2019 attorneys\u201d reached out to the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Bondi replied. When asked how many, she said that she couldn\u2019t recall and added: \u201cI know multiple \u2013 there were multiple victims, and many of which, I believe the majority, are represented by attorneys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you meet with them personally, or would that have been something that Todd Blanche would\u2019ve done?\u201d lawmakers asked Bondi, to which she responded: \u201cNo. I spoke to one attorney. I cannot recall her name \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to her, and I believe I referred her to the FBI,\u201d she added. \u201cYou know, when a victim is represented, you go through their attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bondi\u2019s appearance before the committee followed weeks of back-and-forth between the former attorney general and lawmakers on the committee.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Bondi\u2019s testimony, Democrats are urging<\/a> the representative James Comer, the Republican who chairs the committee, to bring Blanche and the FBI director, Kash Patel, to also answer questions as part of the panel\u2019s investigation into the Epstein case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former attorney general Pam Bondi told lawmakers that Todd Blanche, the man Donald Trump has lined up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-684807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}