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The Epstein Chronicles
The Pam Bondi Congressional Oversight Committee Epstein Related Transcript (Part 4) (6/6/26)
00:12:50
Pam Bondi’s congressional transcript showed her trying to defend the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files while repeatedly distancing herself from the day-to-day mechanics of the review. She told House Oversight lawmakers that Todd...
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Congressional Hearing - Attorney General Pam Bondi
What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode we're going to get right back to Pam Bondi and the transcript from her meeting with Congress. Question so let's talk about that 30 day timeline. Was the Department of Justice able to produce all documents within the 30 days? Bondi no. And that is when I became more involved because we had over 500 attorneys, I believe, working around the clock to do the best we could in good faith to release as many documents as we could within 30 days while protecting the identity of the victims. And I do recall very vividly that these lawyers were working over Christmas, New Year's holidays to get that done some late into the night, I mean 1 2am question and you mentioned 500 attorneys. Bondi plus question where did they come from? Bondi they came from our National Security Division. They came from, I believe, sdny, the Northern District of New York in Florida. Todd Blanche recruited attorneys within our office to come in and complete this herculean task of millions of documents within 30 days to the best that we could to protect victims. Question I would presume that the 500 attorneys had other roles and responsibilities that they were to handle at the Department during the period? They absolutely did, yes. Were there concerns about diverting resources? ANSWER yes. And to clarify, some may have taken this on full time, but I believe many of them had other roles going on at the same time as well. EMMER We've had another member join us. Can he please identify himself for the record? Mr. Khanna Ro Khanna, California 17 Emmer and I know that you've already mentioned how many documents were produced, but again, for the public, how many total documents or materials did the Department of Justice produce to the public pursuant to the Epstein file Transparency Act? Bondi Approximately 3 million. Question and there has been public statements, I believe that then Deputy Attorney General Blanch had said at one point the there were 6 million total potentially responsive material. Is that right? BONDI he did and he's clarified that multiple times, I believe publicly, indicating that a lot much of it was duplicative because it was coming from two districts, some was privileged. And also he stated that some of the material had absolutely nothing to do with Epstein. JEFFREY Epstein it was over collection in an effort to ensure radical transparency for the country. QUESTION so to be clear, there has been a lot said and accusations that the the Department didn't produce everything. Attorney General Bondi, are there any documents remaining in possession of the Department of Justice that are required to be released pursuant to the Epstein File Transparency Act? Answer to my knowledge, they've all been released, to my knowledge. Question why do people keep asking for the files to be releasing? The unredacted versions are also available to members of Congress, including duplicative material. So and I believe that's still available so people can so Congress can go and see it for themselves. The 6 million pages versus why 3 million was released and much of it was duplicative or privileged or completely unrelated to Jeffrey Epstein. At this time. I would like to introduce what will be marked as Majority Exhibit 3. And this is a letter that was sent from the Department of Justice to Senators and members of Congress on January 30th. Mr. Emmer, I would also like to introduce what will be marked as Majority Exhibit 4. This is also a letter that was sent on February 14th of 2026. Emmer and I'll give you a moment to review. Attorney General Bondi, you've had a chance to review the documents. These are the notifications that you provided Congress pursuant to the Epstein File Transparency Act. ANSWER Yes. QUESTION and again, you touched on it previously, but there were certain categories of documents that were not produced, is that right? Answer yes. Question and again, you. I believe one class was duplicative documents. And for the record, I know that you've been an attorney for many years. Can you just explain again what qualifies as duplicative Documents. Sure. The same document being released twice. And that occurred, I believe, because there were documents in multiple districts within the country, specifically, I believe the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York. Question and understanding that then Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was overseeing the efforts, did he ever brief you on how many documents were considered to be duplicative? Not specifically, but I believe it was approximately 3 million, I believe. Oh, duplicative. No, I don't. I'm sorry, I don't recall how many were duplicative. And there were certain documents that were privileged. Yes. Can you elaborate more on why those can't be produced? I can give you an example which would A prosecution memo is privileged. And who made that determination whether a document was considered to be privileged? Todd Blanche, while following the law. Question. And Todd Blanche never approached you about any specific document as it relates to privilege? Bondi Probably. I don't recall specifically, but we probably talked about it. I talk to him every day about multiple issues around the country and the world. Question. And I know you touched on this previously, but the Department of Justice, according to the letters, said that there were certain files that were being withheld that are not part of the case file for Epstein or Maxwell and were completely unrelated to the case. Is that right? Answer yes. Question can you give us an example of what that would be? What would have been captured by that? Answer. Bondi I believe an example that Todd Blanche used was there was someone else in South Florida with the name of Epstein an entire case that had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. That would be an example of it. Question and for the record, recognizing that you had to conduct a search and it produced millions of documents, if those documents were determined to have nothing to do with Epstein or Maxwell case, why were they originally included in this search that the Department of Justice conducted? We wanted to have radical transparency and find everything that was related to Jeffrey Epstein, and that's why the search was overboard. Thank you. I want to talk about the redactions that were in the files. What was the Department of Justice redaction process for documents released under the Epstein File Transparency Act? I believe that it listed is one of Todd Blanche's memos, and he was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files. Question. And during the process, when you were preparing documents to be produced. Were there concerns about what should or should not be redacted? Answer I believe so. Question did you have concerns, Bondi yeah, I have grave concerns about victims names being released because of the volume of documents and the time frame in which those documents had to be released. And I believe most people in the office shared those same concerns. Question and were the guidelines in place for DOJ employees on how to make redactions? I believe Deputy Attorney General Blanch, now Acting Attorney General Blanch, laid out those guidelines for the reviewers, the attorney who reviewed the material, and I believe some of it. The protocol is listed in the memos as well. Are you aware of whether the DOJ employees tasked with conducting redactions, whether they had to undergo any kind of training? I don't recall. I believe so. I'm not certain. Question and I recognize that you may have briefly touched on this, but were there any criteria for the attorneys that were selected to make the redactions? Criteria about the attorneys themselves? Question as far as the 500 attorneys that were selected to contribute to the effort, yeah, as I recall, we used many from our National Security Division because they're highly qualified and also deal with protecting victims and confidential information on a routine basis, but as well as prosecutors from multiple jurisdictions. But how they were specifically chosen, I'm not sure. Attorney General Bondi, did you yourself ever redact documents produced under the Epstein File Transparency Act? No. Question. Were you consulted as to whether or not something should be redacted? I don't believe so. I would now like to introduce what will be marked majority exhibit 5, and I'll give you a moment to review.
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Congressional Hearing - Attorney General Pam Bondi
this is the Department of Justice memorandum dated January 4, 2026 entitled Attorney Review Protocol for Epstein Files. Bondi yeah. And this is from the Deputy Attorney General's Office. Yeah. Question Attorney General Bondi, do you recognize the document? Yes, I have not read it in its entirety. Question Is this document that you were referring to when I asked you whether there was a process for DOJ employees to redact? Answer yes. You asked about training. Yes, and this is a very detailed memo as to what specifically under the law can be released and what should be redacted according to the document. And specifically, on the top of page six, there is a highly confidential list of victim names that must be redacted. Are you aware of a list of victim names that needed to be redacted? Bondi yeah, not specifically what victim, but I believe that list kept growing as well. Question and I believe that you mentioned this before. This was one of your main concerns as part of producing the documents under the efta. Is that right? Bondi yes. Question Were any victims or their attorneys contacted for the creation of this list? Bondi I believe so. Question Was the Department of justice contacted by victims or their attorneys to create the list? Answer I believe so. I also believe the list was ongoing and while the redactions were being done, I recall we would receive more victim names. Therefore, the attorneys doing the redactions would have to Go back and search for the additional names as well. What information would have been used to inform the list of victim names after the redaction? Bondi? I don't recall. Is it safe to assume that Todd Blanche would have been the individual who would have approved the list? Yes. Understanding the time constraints related to 30 days of redacting millions of pages of documents, it seems that there was some redaction mistakes. Is that correct? And these redaction mistakes were both under inclusive and over inclusive. How did that happen? Answer I believe given the volume of documents and again the intense short time frame in which hundreds of lawyers were working around the clock, even on holidays, to get these documents out, there were mistakes. I believe Todd Blanche said It was about 1% error rate. But I would say we all believe that if one victim's name is inadvertently released, that's a failure. Question, if the department was made aware of a mistake, how did it respond? By correcting that mistake as fast as we could. And again, would that have been fallen to then Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche? Yes. Did he brief you on certain mistakes? Not specifically, just that I recall when a victim's name. Everyone was upset when a victim's name got released inadvertently. Question. As far as the victims themselves and those that may have been inadvertently unredacted in the files, did they reach out to you? I don't believe so. And I believe I saw online one victim's name and she said she her name had been released and that was really the extent of my involvement on that. I called Todd right away instead of victim and is saying her name was released and it shouldn't have been, but it would have been something that I saw online. Did the Department of Justice have any avenues for individuals whose names may have been redacted or unredacted in the files to reach out to the department and remedy the situation? I don't recall that process, how that process worked and that could have been done with the FBI. Question Was there a team in charge of checking for and correcting any errors made in the release of the files? Yes, Done at the direction of Todd Blanche. Question do you have any idea of how many corrections were made? Answer, I don't. Alright folks, we're going to wrap up right here. And in the next episode dealing with the topic, we're going to pick up where we left off. All the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.