THEY CLAIMED TRANSPARENCY AT THE EPSTEIN FILES HEARING. IT WAS THE OPPOSITE.

Pam Bondi showed contempt for victims, deflected accountability, and turned a legal obligation into a political spectacle

By Dr. John Petrone

This morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi stood before the House Judiciary Committee, sworn under oath to answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

What transpired was not oversight. It was a performance of evasion disguised as defense.

Lawmakers pressed Bondi on months of delay, excessive redactions, and a statutory obligation she failed to honor. Behind her sat survivors of Epstein’s abuse, silently demanding accountability. But Bondi barely looked their way, and she certainly did not answer their questions.

This was not transparency. It was defiance.

Bondi’s Combative Start

From the first minutes of the hearing, Bondi’s tone was confrontational. When challenged on the department’s mishandling of the files, she exploded into an aggressive defense of the administration she serves, insisting that criticism was nothing more than political theatrics. She repeatedly interrupted lawmakers, raised her voice, refused to directly answer questions, and openly mocked her critics.

Bondi refused to enumerate how many alleged co-conspirators have been charged since the files were released. She sidestepped questions about why redactions shielded powerful names while exposing private details of victims. When asked to apologize directly to the survivors for these failures, Bondi declined.

Instead, she launched into praise for the president and launched personal attacks against members of Congress.

This was not contrition. It was contempt.

The Hearing Became a Theater of Deflection

Rather than address the substance of the allegations — that the DOJ failed to meet the legal deadline and failed to release the files in a manner consistent with the law — Bondi clung instead to political rhetoric. She accused Democrats of targeting her, of engaging in politics instead of justice, and of mischaracterizing the department’s intentions.

When confronted with accusations that the department’s redactions obscured the names of alleged abusers, Bondi dismissed the criticism as partisan attacks. When asked about her failure to meet a clear statutory deadline, she deflected to stock market performance and other unrelated talking points.

This was not accountability. It was avoidance.

What Bondi Failed to Acknowledge

Behind each of these files are real people whose lives were shattered. Victims were present in the hearing room today. They did not come to witness political sparring. They came seeking truth, justice, and respect.

What they received was a line of excuse and evasive rhetoric.

Bondi repeatedly insisted the department was protecting victims, yet she could not explain how those protections were applied consistently or why names of powerful figures remained obscured while personal details of survivors surfaced publicly.

This is not leadership. This is damage control.

The Pattern

Delay.
Redact.
Attack critics.
Avoid the question.
Turn obligations into talking points.

This is the method of an institution that fears the truth.

This is how power protects itself.

This is how victims are made invisible.

Do Not Miss the Message

This hearing was not an honest attempt to confront failure.

It was a spectacle that signaled to everyone watching that deflection is acceptable when power is threatened.

That victims are secondary to political preservation.

That legal mandates can be interpreted as suggestions.

That accountability is optional.

This is not how a justice system serves the people.

This is how it protects elites.

How We Fight Back

We do not accept deflection as a defense.

We demand every question be answered directly.

We insist that legal deadlines be honored in substance, not in spectacle.

We refuse to let officials hide behind political platitudes.

We amplify the voices of survivors, not the voices of evasions.

We turn every deflection back into a demand for truth.

We make political dodge tactics costly.

We hold every official accountable who chose performance over transparency.

The Line We Draw

Justice is not a political tool.

Justice is not a talking point.

Justice is not a game of semantics.

The hearing was not an answer.

It was an evasion.

And the American people saw it for what it was.

We will not let this moment pass unchallenged.

Every official must be held to the rule of law.

Every survivor must be respected.

And every document must be fully disclosed.

P.S. Release All of the Epstein Files Now!