Epstein Files Hearing LIVE: Pam Bondi Questioned Over Epstein Probe as Republicans Back Subpoena

[0:00] courtrooms across this country. This administration has been sued 627 times. [0:06] We've fought through a non-stop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders [0:12] from liberal activist judges across this country. America has never seen this level [0:19] of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. [0:25] It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the [0:34] democratic process. In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable [0:44] rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court, their emergency docket and even more to come. We've done so [0:52] while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping FASAC prosecutions, [0:58] exposing the Arctic Frost scandal via congressional disclosure, thank you, Chairman, and restoring [1:05] one tier of justice in this country. To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and [1:16] reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with [1:22] Congress's law. We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the [1:31] public while doing our very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation to protect victims. [1:40] And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted [1:48] it. All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves. I want to [1:58] take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. I'm a career prosecutor, and [2:05] despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will [2:13] continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a [2:23] result of that monster. If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or [2:33] abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you. I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be [2:45] taken seriously and investigated. The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the [2:55] law. In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1700 child predators, a 10% increase from 2024. We also located 2700 victims of child [3:11] exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. 3.8 million. So please, if you have information to share that needs to be [3:27] investigated, contact the FBI. Today, I look forward to discussing further our shared obligation to protect [3:36] the American people, uphold the rule of law, and keep this nation safe. Thank you. [3:43] Thank you, Madam Attorney General. We now proceed under the five-minute rule. The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for five minutes. [3:50] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation. [3:59] of those responsible over the years in the Epstein debacle. Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civil rights, between criminal, [4:13] between so-called white-collar crime, and doing so, as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the president are under attack and our ICE agents and FBI and others are under attack when they try to enforce law. [4:27] I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden, support, or even stand with those lawbreakers that sit on this and other daises here in Congress. [4:42] My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the chairman of that subcommittee. [4:51] I'll forego that today because one of my other jobs is the creation and maintenance of Article III judges, and I work with the Chief Justice on that, and we're trying to expand the court. [5:04] But currently, there are only 677 district court judges. They have very full dockets as well. But you create a tremendous amount of judges, particularly immigration judges. [5:19] On March 20th, 2024, he's charged with felony motor vehicle theft, stole a car. [5:26] And on March 20th, 2024, nine days later, he's arrested by the Denver Police and placed in the Denver Justice Center. [5:32] Six days later, March 22nd, 2024, ICE sends a detainer notice to the Denver Justice Center saying this, [5:41] If you're going to release Mr. Gonzalez, can you give us a heads up? Can you let us know maybe 48 hours before you're going to release this guy so we can come apprehend him there at the jail? [5:52] And remember, detainer is a final order of removal from a court where this individual or this individual has committed some removable offense. [6:01] But on February 28th, 2025, Abraham Gonzalez is released to the streets. In fact, we can put that up. [6:09] I think you can see this released. We got the form from the Denver Justice Center. [6:14] What kind of inmate was Mr. Gonzalez for those 345 days that he was in the Denver Justice Center? [6:22] We have that too. Violent to the staff. Keep separate. [6:27] So this guy was so bad, you had to keep him away from other inmates. He had already assaulted some staff member. [6:34] But Denver released this guy to the streets and let instead of turning over to ICE agents who would have come to the jail and arrest him there. [6:42] And of course, we all know what happens when the officers did apprehend Mr. Gonzalez out on the street. [6:49] He assaulted one of the officers. This is what happens when you have a sanctuary jurisdiction. [6:54] Right now in Minnesota, there are 1,360 detainer notices for violent offenders. [6:59] Governor Walz and others have released 470 criminal illegal aliens back to the streets. [7:06] In New York State, it's 7,000. Nationwide, it's over 17,000 that we know of. [7:13] Where a detainer was filed since President Trump's been in office, over 17,000 times a detainer was filed. [7:20] And those individuals were released to the streets instead of turned over to federal law enforcement. [7:27] 17,864 times illegals who've been charged with the crime have been released, released to the streets, [7:34] and thereby jeopardizing the safety of the public, the safety of law enforcement, and of course, the migrant themselves. [7:43] And frankly, helping create the environment that results in the tragic deaths like we saw with Ms. Good and Mr. Preddy. [7:50] A few years ago, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this in response to the State of the Union address. [7:56] She said the divide in America today is normal versus crazy. [8:02] And it's true. [8:03] Because it's crazy not to have a border, which is what we had in the previous administration. [8:06] It's crazy to abolish ICE. [8:08] And it's crazy to release bad guys who are here illegally to the streets, [8:11] when with one phone call, federal law enforcement will come to the jail and pick them up. [8:18] The mindset that says it's okay to release these guys is the same left-wing mindset [8:24] that thinks it's okay to weaponize government against your political opponents. [8:28] And that is exactly what we had in the previous Justice Department. [8:32] The Biden-Harris Department of Justice called parents domestic terrorists. [8:37] The Biden-Harris Justice Department used FBI SWAT teams to arrest pro-life advocates. [8:43] The Biden-Harris DOJ targeted traditional Catholics. [8:46] The Biden-Harris DOJ pressured social media companies to censor Americans. [8:50] And the Biden-Harris Justice Department launched not one, but two investigations into President Trump, [8:56] spending over $35 million to try to bring down their political opponent. [9:03] To further this effort, they sought the phone records of over a dozen Republican members of Congress. [9:08] Even the Democrats said this was wrong. [9:11] They got bank records for scores of White House officials. [9:13] They even paid at least one confidential human source $20,000 for information on President Trump. [9:18] And of course, while doing all this, they couldn't tell us who planted the pipe bombs, [9:23] who leaked the Dobbs opinion, and who put cocaine in the White House. [9:26] But thank goodness the American people saw through it all. [9:28] Americans were tired of being targeted for their beliefs, tired of the lawfare, [9:32] tired of the rampant crime throughout this country. [9:34] And that's why they overwhelmingly elected President Trump. [9:37] And what a difference a year makes. [9:39] What a difference a year makes. [9:41] Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions, [9:46] upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys, and keeping Americans safe. [9:49] The Trump Justice Department has restored the rule of law. [9:52] Murders are down nationwide by 20 percent. [9:54] D.C. violent crime is down by 28 percent. [9:57] The federal surge in D.C. resulted in 8,000 arrests, the seizure of 800 illegal guns, [10:02] and the recovery of 16 missing kids. [10:07] The Trump Justice Department apprehended a suspect in the pipe bomb investigation, [10:10] and they've arrested six of the FBI's top 10 most wanted fugitives in just one year. [10:16] Of course, they arrested narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro, [10:19] and they seized a record number of drugs flowing into this country. [10:22] The Trump Justice Department put an end to targeting Americans for their beliefs. [10:26] Attorney General Bondi rescinded Attorney General Garland's anti-parent memorandum. [10:33] The Department of Justice ended the practices of using the FACE Act to target pro-life Americans. [10:38] They've refused to tolerate attacks on places of worship and investigations of traditional Catholics [10:44] that we saw in the previous administration on her first day. [10:47] Attorney General Bondi disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force [10:50] that was pressuring social media companies to censor Americans. [10:54] And the Trump Justice Department is in the lawfare. [10:57] Under Attorney General Bondi, along with Director Patel, [11:01] they've worked to expose the political nature of Arctic Frost and the Jack Smith investigations. [11:08] They've turned over hundreds of pages of documents to Congress, [11:10] and that's why we know, for example, that Mr. Smith paid at least $20,000 to some confidential human source. [11:17] That's why we know that Jack Smith knew it was unconstitutional, seek to toll records from members. [11:22] But since the litigation risk was low, and because members would never find out about the subpoena until years later, [11:29] they charged ahead and violated the Constitution. [11:32] The Trump Justice Department has changed DOJ policy to require prosecutors to tell judges [11:38] if NDOs relate to members of the separate and equal branch of government, the Congress. [11:45] And to top it all off, the Trump Justice Department opened an investigation into the conspiracy behind the Russia collusion hoax. [11:52] The Justice Department has put common sense ahead of politics. [11:56] They sued to keep boys out of girls' sports. [11:58] They secured deals with universities to stop race-based admissions and anti-Semitic practices. [12:02] And after discovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, [12:04] the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi, [12:08] has established a new National Fraud Division. [12:11] In fact, I met with Colin McDonald, who will head that division last week. [12:14] I think he's going to do a great job. [12:16] There's a lot of work to be done in that area. [12:19] But I want to thank the Attorney General for her great work in the first year on the job. [12:25] And I want to thank you for being here. [12:27] With that, I would yield to the ranking member for an opening statement. [12:29] Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Attorney General Bondi. [12:34] You've got the best lawyer's job in America because your mission is justice, [12:39] and your clients are the American people. [12:42] But to promote justice for the people, you've got to listen to the victims, [12:46] like the women seated behind you today. [12:50] Those are just some of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's [12:54] global sex trafficking ring who are demanding that the truth be told [12:58] and are demanding accountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them. [13:03] You still haven't met with these survivors. [13:06] So with their permission, let me introduce to you the survivors [13:10] and late survivors' family members who are present today. [13:13] There's Theresa Helm. [13:15] There's Jess Michaels. [13:17] Laura Bloom McGee. [13:20] Danny Bensky. [13:22] Liz Stein. [13:23] Marina Lacerda. [13:24] Skye and Amanda Roberts, who are the family of the late Virginia Giuffre. [13:29] Charlene Richard. [13:31] And Lisa Phillips. [13:32] Now you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General. [13:36] Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring, [13:39] or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, [13:44] as Attorney General, you're siding with the perpetrators, [13:48] and you're ignoring the victims. [13:50] That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. [13:55] You're running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice. [14:00] You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over 6 million documents, [14:05] photographs, and videos in Epstein files, but you've turned over only 3 million. [14:11] You say you're not turning over the other 3 million because they're somehow duplicative, [14:16] but we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there, [14:20] and you also took down the Department of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. [14:26] So it's clearly not all duplicative, but even if it were, why not release it? [14:31] Just release all the duplicative stuff. [14:33] In the half you did produce, you redacted the names of abusers, enablers, [14:38] accomplices, and co-conspirators, apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, [14:44] which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. [14:48] Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims' names, [14:55] which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. [14:58] Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not. [15:01] Many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends, [15:07] but you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. [15:18] So you ignored the law, and even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, [15:23] you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference, [15:29] and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000 victims raped, abused, and trafficked. [15:37] This performance screams cover-up. [15:39] Convicted sex trafficker and groomer, Ghislaine Maxwell, [15:43] opened the gates of hell to Virginia Giuffre and hundreds of other victims, [15:48] as Virginia recorded in her remarkable book, Nobody's Girl. [15:52] But when Maxwell was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress, [15:56] you and Todd Blanche quickly moved her from a higher-security prison [16:01] to a minimum-security camp in Texas, where she's enjoyed five-star treatment, [16:06] including catered meals, private gym time, and access to a therapy puppy. [16:13] All because Todd Blanche, who's utterly failed to investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators, [16:21] spent nine hours with Maxwell and satisfied himself that she would have nothing untoward to say about Donald Trump, [16:34] which is your only real interest in the matter based on institutional performance. [16:39] But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators is what you do best. [16:44] When the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutal killing in Minneapolis of Renee Goode, [16:50] a poet and 37-year-old mother of three by Trump's masked paramilitary ICE agents, you shut it down. [16:57] You claim you're investigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Preddy, an ICU nurse at the VA. [17:03] But how can we trust the administration when the president and Kristi Noem called Preddy a domestic terrorist, [17:09] and Stephen Miller called him a would-be assassin? [17:12] Not only do you refuse to share evidence with the state and local investigators and prosecutors in Minnesota, [17:18] you have blocked their access to the crime scene and the evidence. [17:22] How are you seeking justice for Marimar Martinez, the Montessori school teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by a border patrol agent, [17:32] who bragged about it on text? [17:34] Or the family of Keith Porter, a father of two, shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in L.A.? [17:40] Or the family of Silverio Villas Gonzalez, shot and killed in Illinois minutes after he dropped his kids off at school? [17:47] There's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice. [17:51] You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. [17:56] How sick is that? [17:58] But it's even worse. [17:59] You've turned the People's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. [18:05] Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time. [18:10] He tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, [18:17] and members of Congress like Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slotkin, Chrissy Houlihan, Jason Crowe, Chris Deluzio, and Maggie Goodlander, to name a few. [18:27] And you snap to it. [18:28] You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stooges who robotically do the president's bidding. [18:35] Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement. [18:44] The good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, including some of your own original appointees, have refused your lawless orders. [18:53] Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, resigned rather than follow your corrupt order to quash an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams as a political favor from Donald Trump. [19:06] The Federalist Society member who clerked for Justice Scalia, U.S. Attorney Sassoon refused to participate in this blatantly corrupt scheme. [19:14] Her top assistant, Hagan Scotton, an Iraqi war vet and two-time Bronze Star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, and then Judge Kavanaugh, promptly resigned too, writing to your office, quote, [19:26] I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion. [19:33] But it was never going to be me. [19:35] You and the president nominated Eric Siebert, a 15-year career prosecutor, to be your U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. [19:43] But after five months of investigating Letitia James and James Comey, he found no evidence to justify criminal charges. [19:52] So you forced him out. [19:54] You replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mar-a-Lago documents case, who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications. [20:04] And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corrupt appointment was blatantly unlawful and threw out Halligan's indictments entirely. [20:13] And grand juries of American citizens have repeatedly rejected your vendettas and baseless indictments brought by the hacks left at DOJ now. [20:21] With two different grand juries in Virginia voting down indictments against Letitia James in a single week. [20:26] And just yesterday another grand jury shut down your vendetta factory by rejecting indictments against the six members of Congress who had spoken out to remind all service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. [20:40] You tried to get a grand jury to indict six members of Congress who are veterans of our armed forces on charges of seditious conspiracy simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. [20:52] I hope you will keep the wisdom and the constitutional patriotism of those grand jurors and not try it again by doubling down on that humiliation. [21:00] As your best lawyers are sacked for having participated in the January six case or just flee for the exits. [21:07] Now your new lawyers keep lying in court in dozens of cases. [21:11] They've been excoriated for lying to federal judges. [21:14] Chief Judge Bose Berg right here in D.C. suggested your Department of Justice perpetrated a fraud on the court. [21:21] Other judges found your statements to be, quote, inexplicably misleading, patently incredible, totally inconsistent and so disingenuous that the court is left with little confidence that the government can be trusted to tell the truth about anything. [21:38] Now, as ranking ranking member, I asked the chairman to add a few extra rounds of questions today because we each have five hours of questions, not five minutes, but we're stuck with five minutes. [21:51] That's clearly insufficient to give voice to America's victims and survivors and to demand answers about all the corruption and cover ups that we see at D.O.J. right now. [22:00] We've got just one round, so we ask you politely but firmly, Madam Attorney General, please do not waste one second of our precious time by evading questions, by changing the subject or engaging in personal attacks against members of Congress. [22:17] We saw your performance in the Senate and we're not going to accept that. [22:20] This isn't a game in the Senate. [22:22] In the Senate, you brought something with you called a burn book, a binder of smears to attack members personally for doing the people's work of oversight. [22:31] Please set the burn book aside and answer our questions. [22:34] And when you hear us reclaim our time, that means it's time for you to stop speaking. [22:39] We only have five minutes, so when we reclaim our time, that means you stop. [22:43] And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock and let you go on his time. [22:48] The quality of justice in America depends on the character of our government. [22:53] Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice back from the brink. [22:57] The survivors seated behind you and the American people watching everywhere deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. [23:04] I yield back, Mr. Chair. [23:05] Without objection, all of the opening statements will be included in the record. [23:08] We will now introduce today's witness. [23:09] The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi has served as the Attorney General of the United States since February 5th, 2025. [23:15] Previously served in the Office of the White House Counsel, two terms as the Florida Attorney General, and spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor. [23:22] We welcome our witness and thank her for appearing today. [23:25] We will begin by swearing you in. [23:26] Would you please rise and raise your right hand? [23:29] Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and beliefs, so help you God? [23:40] I do. [23:41] Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. [23:43] Thank you. [23:44] You can be seated. [23:45] And please know that your written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. [23:49] Accordingly, we ask that you summarize your testimony. [23:53] Madam Attorney General, you may begin. [23:55] Thank you. [23:57] Thank you, Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Raskin, and distinguished members of this committee. [24:02] Thank you for hosting me here today. [24:04] I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer your questions, highlight the work of our department, and discuss the most important topic of all, keeping the American people safe. [24:15] A little over a year ago, I was sworn into office as the 87th Attorney General of the United States. [24:22] I came into office with the goal of refocusing the Department of Justice on its core mission after years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization. [24:32] The Department of Justice's core mission is to fight violent crime, protect the American people, and defend the rule of law above all else. [24:44] While our work is never done, we have made tremendous progress to make America safe again. [24:51] In 2025, we saw the lowest murder rate in 125 years. [24:57] That's nothing short of historic. [25:00] If you compare 25 to 24, here's what you'll find. [25:05] The murder rate is down 21 percent. [25:08] Robbery down 23 percent. [25:10] Carjacking down 43 percent. [25:12] Gun assault down 22 percent. [25:15] Ag assault, burglary could go on and on. [25:18] Crime is declining. [25:20] This did not happen by accident. [25:23] The numbers tell an important, yet straightforward story. [25:27] President Trump has given us the resources, the support, and the leadership to protect the American people. [25:36] President Trump's policies have saved lives. [25:39] I cannot think of a policy outcome more important than protecting the lives of American citizens. [25:47] Can you? [25:48] This trend has been especially clear in Washington, D.C., and in Memphis. [25:54] These are two iconic American cities that spent years in the grip of horrific violent crime. [26:02] The Department of Justice surged law enforcement resources, and the results came quickly. [26:08] Crime plummeted in both cities. [26:12] And I want to make one point loud and clear. [26:15] We achieved those results by working with Democratic mayors. [26:22] Public safety does not have a party registration. [26:27] When your constituents call 9-1-1, they don't ask for political views of the responding officer. [26:33] They ask for help. [26:34] I have federal agents in each and every one of your districts. [26:40] They're here to help, and I am here to help. [26:44] Many cities and states have worked with us and taken advantage of our federal support. [26:50] Some have not. [26:51] Meanwhile, a few elected officials have declared that they are, quote, at war with the federal government, [26:56] and encouraged widespread obstruction of law enforcement. [27:02] This has resulted in avoidable clashes on the streets, as you've all seen. [27:07] We've seen rioters storming a Christian church. [27:11] Citizens and law enforcement officers have both been endangered by reckless rhetoric. [27:19] We have made dozens of arrests in and around Minneapolis so far, and many of them could have been avoided by simple compliance with federal law. [27:29] Of course, our efforts reach beyond our urban centers. [27:35] We are striking crucial blows against terrorist organizations such as MS-13, TDA, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Antifa. [27:45] And as we sit here, I think you've seen the news this morning. [27:49] The news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. [27:57] That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America. [28:01] As we seek to dismantle these drug trafficking networks that poison Americans. [28:10] In 2025, our DEA agents seized more than 47 million fentanyl pills and more than 9,800 total kilos of fentanyl. [28:26] That represents 369 million potentially deadly doses that can kill Americans. [28:37] Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for President Trump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. [28:44] This administration has been sued 627 times. [28:48] We fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. [28:58] America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. [29:08] It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process. [29:17] In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court. [29:29] Their emergency docket and even more to come. [29:33] We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping FASAC prosecutions. [29:39] Exposing the Arctic Frost scandal via congressional disclosure. [29:45] Thank you, Chairman, and restoring one tier of justice in this country. [29:50] To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress's law. [30:06] We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims. [30:23] And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it. [30:30] All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves. [30:36] I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. [30:43] I'm a career prosecutor and despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims and I will continue to do so. [30:57] I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster. [31:06] If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you. [31:20] I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated. [31:30] The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law. [31:38] In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1700 child predators, a 10% increase from 2024. [31:47] We also located 2700 victims of child exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. [32:01] 3.8 million. [32:04] So please, if you have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI. [32:12] Today, I look forward to discussing further our shared obligation to protect the American people, uphold the rule of law, and keep this nation safe. [32:25] Thank you. [32:27] Thank you, Madam Attorney General. [32:29] We now proceed under the five-minute rule. [32:31] The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for five minutes. [32:33] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [32:35] Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible [32:44] over the years in the Epstein debacle. [32:47] Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civil rights, between criminal, between so-called white-collar crime. [32:58] And doing so, as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the president are under attack, [33:05] and our ICE agents and FBI and others are under attack when they try to enforce law. [33:10] I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden, support, or even stand with those lawbreakers that sit on this and other daises here in Congress. [33:27] My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the chairman of that subcommittee. [33:33] I'll forego that today because one of my other jobs is the creation and maintenance of Article III judges. [33:42] And I work with the chief justice on that, and we're trying to expand the court. [33:47] But currently, there are only 677 district court judges. [33:51] They have very full dockets as well. [33:53] But you create a tremendous amount of judges, particularly immigration judges. [34:01] You do so in order to save the court that, but adjudicate, as is requirement, each of those people who claim a right to be here in the United States. [34:14] And that has been going on under Republican and Democratic administrations for years. [34:19] What's unique about the Trump administration this time is that you and President Trump have managed to reduce the backlog of people seeking that for the first time in decades. [34:33] You are getting ahead of that tremendous backlog that caused, for better or worse, the release of millions of people with little pieces of paper saying, [34:43] come back later when we call you and often to no avail when you call. [34:49] So I want to congratulate you on that because it's an accomplishment you might not take credit for and the other side would never give you credit for. [34:58] But I hope you can continue to do that and do more. [35:01] And I say so for a reason, because much of this hearing will be about Minneapolis and other places in which the backlog of criminal aliens, including in my home state of California, [35:16] people who have hurt other people, who people who have victimized their communities, is extensive. [35:22] And although the overall number through adjudication may be going on, because of places like my home state, California, you're unable to apprehend people that my sheriffs want apprehended. [35:35] They desperately want to cooperate and they're prohibited by law. [35:39] It is this committee's opinion on this side of the aisle that, in fact, you should be given the ability to demand that participation [35:51] and that the release of a known criminal not be considered to be acceptable just because a state or city has declared itself a sanctuary. [36:00] I want you to opine on just one thing that I think has been misunderstood. [36:05] As I said earlier, you create and maintain those judges that adjudicate these cases. [36:12] You also support so many that, in fact, have to make decisions as judges. [36:24] Knowing that this limitation of so few Article III judges are there, please educate those who seem to miss the point that Article I judges, [36:34] including bankruptcy judges, including immigration judges, including lots of people with the title appropriately judged, [36:41] do, in fact, issue documents that look like, act like, and are normally accepted as warrants, as subpoenas, [36:52] as demands for state officials to stand aside and allow the production of either an individual or documents. [37:01] Because I think people are missing the point that these ICE retainers and detainers and so on, [37:07] they act like they're nothing when, in fact, in the ordinary course, Madam General, [37:13] you do, in fact, have Article I judges constantly putting those out and they are respected normally. [37:19] Thank you, Congressman, for talking about all the great judges. [37:29] And if I could add one thing to that, we are always recruiting and looking for judges. [37:35] So please reach out to our office for these judges who are handling all these very important matters. [37:42] We've even added some JAG officers as immigration judges. [37:47] Thank you. [37:48] And so we're continuing to do that. [37:50] But we're always seeking qualified lawyers as well to be part of that. [37:54] And thank you for highlighting that, Congressman. [37:57] Thank you. I yield back. [37:58] The gentleman yields back. The gentlelady from Washington is recognized. [38:01] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [38:03] Good morning, Attorney General Bondi, right here. [38:06] We are joined in this room by some of the thousands of survivors from Jeffrey Epstein's horrific sex trafficking ring. [38:14] They have shown such incredible courage in speaking out, in demanding accountability to bring the predators and pedophiles to justice. [38:25] The Epstein Files Transparency Act required your Department of Justice to disclose the perpetrators connected with Epstein's criminal activities [38:33] and to redact the information of survivors to protect their identities. [38:38] Let me show you what actually happened. [38:41] First, in violation of the law, your department has shown a pattern of redacting the names of powerful predators. [38:51] Here behind me is one example of an email from Epstein to a man whose name was redacted. [38:58] The email reads, quote, [39:01] Where are you? Are you OK? [39:04] I loved the torture video. [39:07] Only after members of Congress demanded that we see the unredacted files did the world learn the name of this individual, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayam, [39:20] the chairman and CEO of a company that had financial ties to President Trump's business and personal ties to Trump's advisor, Steve Bannon. [39:29] Second, the survivors were not similarly protected, also in violation of the law. [39:36] Here is another email titled Epstein Victim List. [39:40] We have blurred the names of the survivors for their protection, but your Department of Justice initially released this list of 32 survivors' names with only one name redacted, [39:53] along with numerous files that disclosed not only the names, the emails and the addresses of survivors, but also nude photographs and even the identities of Jane Doe's, [40:06] who had been protected for decades until your department released their names. [40:12] Survivors are now telling us that their families are finding out for the first time that they were trafficked by Epstein. [40:19] In their words, quote, [40:21] This release does not provide closure. [40:24] It feels like a deliberate attempt to intimidate survivors, punish those who came forward and reinforce the same culture of secrecy that allowed Epstein's crimes to continue for decades. [40:38] To the survivors in the room, if you are willing, please stand. [40:49] And if you are willing, please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice. [40:58] Please know for the record that every single survivor has raised their hand. [41:06] Attorney General Bondi, you apologize to the survivors in your opening statement for what they went through at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. [41:16] Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information? [41:34] Congresswoman, you set before Merrick Garland set in this chair twice. [41:46] Attorney General Bondi, [41:48] Can I finish my answer? [41:49] No, I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked you a specific question that I would like you to answer, which is, will you turn to the survivors? [42:00] This is not about anybody that came before you. [42:02] It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize for what your Department of Justice has done. [42:20] Members get to ask the questions. [42:22] The witness gets to answer in the way they want to answer. [42:24] Attorney General can respond. [42:25] That's not accurate, Mr. Chairman. [42:27] Because she doesn't like the answer. [42:28] I don't like the answer. [42:30] So, Mr. Chairman, I have asked a question. [42:33] Why didn't she ask Merrick Garland this twice when he sat in my chair? [42:36] I am reclaiming my time, and when I reclaim my time, it is mine. [42:40] I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics. [42:44] The time belongs to the gentlelady. [42:46] The gentlelady has 17 seconds. [42:48] Thank you. [42:49] You're not going to answer this question, so let me just say this. [42:52] Chairman, I'll direct it to you. [42:53] What a massive cover-up. [42:54] No, I'm answering a question. [42:55] Mr. Chairman, will you restore her time? [42:56] The witness is interrupting. [42:57] I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman. [42:58] Stop the time. [42:59] She's doing theatrics. [43:00] Let me have my time. [43:01] The gentlelady from Washington controls the time. [43:04] The gentlelady has 17 seconds. [43:06] You can proceed with your final 17 seconds. [43:08] Thank you. [43:09] What a massive cover-up this has been and continues to be. [43:12] Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein files the center of his political campaign [43:17] because he thought it would benefit him. [43:19] When you got into office, Attorney General claimed to have a client list, only to then say that there was no list. [43:26] Your deputy, Todd Blanche, met alone with Elaine Maxwell and transferred her to a minimum security prison. [43:34] And now you continue the cover-up. [43:37] The time of the gentlelady has expired. [43:38] And I wish that you would turn around to the survivors who are standing right behind you and on a human level. [43:44] Chairman, chair now recognizes the gentlelady has expired. [43:49] The time of the gentlelady has expired. [43:50] You have no time to yield back. [43:52] We appreciate that. [43:53] We appreciate the thought. [43:56] And I would argue the central issue in the last election, the presidential election, was securing the border. [44:02] The gentleman from Arizona who knows something about securing the border is up for five minutes. [44:06] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [44:07] And thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for being here today. [44:10] In 2022, Lafarge, which is a French cement company, pled guilty in U.S. federal court to participating in a criminal conspiracy with ISIS. [44:20] That conspiracy contributed to the deaths of U.S. service members fighting in Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve. [44:28] As part of the plea agreement, Lafarge was required to pay more than $775 million to DOJ's asset forfeiture fund. [44:36] In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission [44:41] submitted by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. [44:47] The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved. [44:52] My question for you on this particular issue is if you are willing to work to ensure those families that their petitions will be reviewed and brought to a resolution. [45:02] Congressman, we are aware of that and we are committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. [45:10] Thank you for that question. [45:12] Yeah, appreciate your answer. [45:13] And now let's go to something that is also pressing that I've been working on for years, and this is the FISA section 702 and Arctic Frost. [45:22] In January 2025, you testified before the U.S. Senate and agreed with Senator DeLi that, quote, [45:28] anytime an American citizen's private communications are intercepted or stored, whether through incidental collection or otherwise, [45:34] those communications should not be searched without some showing of probable cause, close quote. [45:39] Do you still hold that view today, I assume? [45:41] Yes. [45:43] And during the most recent FISA reauthorization, I offered an amendment to establish a clear warrant requirement for searches of Americans' data [45:52] while preserving every publicly cited operational exception, including emergencies, defensive queries, cybersecurity threats. [46:00] And my intent was to ensure the Department of Justice could continue to keep Americans safe while also ending warrantless searches of U.S. persons' data. [46:09] Are there any additional circumstances or exceptions that you believe must be included to ensure DOJ can continue to operate effectively while still protecting American citizens' data and privacy? [46:23] Yeah, Congressman, we are committed to working with Congress to uncover weaponization and other misconduct by Jack Smith, by others, Arctic Frost, everything that happened under the past administration. [46:36] And we are committed to working with you on that. [46:41] And we are working with Chairman Jordan, with the House Intel, with all of my fellow Cabinet members on resolving that issue. [46:52] Well, thank you. [46:53] And I'm glad you brought up Arctic Frost, because Section 702 was used in the Arctic Frost investigation. [46:59] It was. [47:00] And information derived was used by Special Counsel Jack Smith. [47:05] And my question has always been, and no one's been able to answer this, is what was the legal predicate for using a foreign intelligence authority in the Arctic Frost investigation? [47:15] Have you been able to ascertain any legal predicate? [47:20] Congressman, what I can tell you today is that has been referred to my office. [47:26] I can't discuss anything regarding that, because it is very active and ongoing. [47:33] And you probably can't answer this one either, but I really want to know if Section 702 queries related to that matter involved members of Congress, which we know at some level it did. [47:42] Congressional staff, which we know at some level did. [47:45] We've heard that journalists or other U.S. persons not suspecting of acting as foreign agents were also caught up in that. [47:51] Can you answer that question and say whether queries did cover all those those groups I just identified? [47:57] It is a very active pending investigation within my office. [48:02] However, I believe many members of Congress have stated that their phones were were part of Arctic Frost. [48:13] We are well aware of that, and we are taking this very seriously, and this is a very active investigation. [48:21] And I would keep going and say if any member of the Democrat Party, if any of them thought it happened to them, we would take that just as serious as we do. [48:31] And they should be jumping up and down, screaming, supporting you and what you want to do, because this should be a bipartisan issue. [48:40] Well, I hope it is a bipartisan issue. [48:44] And, you know, I'll just leave with these last couple of questions, which I'm sure fall into the same investigation privilege. [48:53] But that's this. How many such queries were actually conducted overall? [48:57] This is outside Arctic Frost in the prior year by by the FBI or other intelligence community. [49:02] And particularly, we really need to know what were what were the legal standards applied? [49:07] Did they use probable cause? Did they use reasonable, articulable suspicion? [49:11] Or did they have no individualized suspicion and just were gathering up information? [49:15] And and that's that's beyond the investigation regarding Arctic Frost. [49:19] I don't expect you to have that information today. [49:22] But if you can help get that information so we can understand the extensive nature of this continued misuse of cyclone 02, it would be very particularly helpful. [49:33] And it was extensive. Yes, Congressman. Thank you. [49:35] Time of the gentleman has expired. [49:37] I have a UC, Mr. Chairman. [49:39] And that is the general aide from Texas. [49:42] I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record. [49:44] El Paso airspace reopened after FAA quickly rescinds 10 day flights restriction. [49:50] This was published by the Texas Tribune on February 11th, 2026. [49:54] And it says it was because of an impasse with the DoD over the use of unmanned military aircraft and not triggered by Mexican cartel drones. [50:04] First round. Not objection. [50:06] Point of order, Mr. Chairman, I didn't hear back about the second round of questions. [50:09] I assume that's not happening. [50:10] I just want to be able to assure the members, certainly on my side, if not both sides. [50:15] That's not a point of order. [50:16] That every member will get five minutes with the witness. [50:21] Will there be five minutes for each? [50:23] Yeah, you get five minutes. Yeah. [50:24] With the witness. Okay, very good. [50:25] Yeah. Okay. And are you up next? [50:28] The gentleman from New York is recognized. [50:31] Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by acknowledging the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's horrific abuse who are in the room with us today. [50:40] I want to thank all of you for your bravery in speaking out. [50:43] I want to say that you and the other survivors of these heinous crimes deserve better from this Department of Justice. [50:50] In particular, it is shocking that the Department did not redact the names of Epstein's victims, but it did redact the names of their abusers. [50:59] I don't know whether this was done out of incompetence or whether it was deliberate and malicious, but either way, it is completely unacceptable. [51:07] Even more troubling, the DOJ has failed to bring any of these perpetrators to justice. [51:12] Instead, it has engaged in a relentless pursuit of Donald Trump's perceived enemies. [51:17] I want to focus on just one example. [51:20] The Attorney General of my home state of New York, Tish James. [51:24] This DOJ has been hell-bent on securing an indictment against Ms. James for something, anything, simply because she held Donald Trump's companies accountable for years of financial fraud. [51:35] And indeed, the Department manufactured an investigation against her for alleged, quote, mortgage fraud. [51:41] The DOJ attorney leading the investigation, Eric Siebert, a Trump appointee, refused to bring charges against Ms. James because there was simply no evidence. [51:51] Unfortunately, a prosecutor who refuses to do Trump's bidding has no place in this DOJ, so Mr. Siebert was forced out. [52:01] Now, Trump could not contain his fury, fury that he expressed to you in a social media post addressed to you by name. [52:09] I'm sure you've seen it. [52:10] Quote, I fired him and there is a great case he wrote to you about, Mr. Siebert. [52:14] Then we moved down. [52:15] We can't delay any longer. [52:17] It's killing our reputation and credibility. [52:19] They impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing. [52:24] Justice must be served now. [52:26] And obviously, you followed that order. [52:29] Lindsay Halligan, Trump's former defense lawyer who had never prosecuted the case in her life, was installed to replace Mr. Siebert. [52:37] And it was clear that part of her mandate was to go after Ms. James. [52:41] Halligan immediately sought an indictment, which the court dismissed because Halligan was illegally put into the road. [52:47] But your department was undeterred. [52:50] And not once, but twice, you tried to indict Attorney General James in separate courts. [52:55] Both grand juries rejected you and refused to indict her. [52:59] It is practically unheard of for a grand jury to refuse an indictment. [53:03] In 2016, it happened in just six cases out of over 150,000 offenses. [53:11] And you had it happened twice in the same week, in two different courts. [53:15] That must have been humiliating. [53:18] And now there are reports that you are continuing to investigate her. [53:21] The amount of resources that have gone into targeting Attorney General James, months of investigations, multiple failed indictments, is astounding. [53:29] Since your own prosecutors told you that there is not enough evidence to support a conviction, [53:33] it's clear that you are going after her simply because she held President Trump accountable and he wants to punish her. [53:40] And she is just one name on a long list of Trump political enemies that DOJ has reportedly targeting. [53:47] From Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserve, to James Comey, numerous Democratic members of Congress, [53:53] John Brennan, Jack Smith, Democratic officials of Minnesota, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylors, and more. [53:59] And those are just the ones we know about. [54:02] In contrast to these politically motivated investigations, grasping at something they can charge their enemies with, [54:08] we now have concrete evidence of disgusting criminality revealed in the Epstein files. [54:13] So I really have just one question for you. [54:17] How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? [54:20] How many perpetrators are you even investigating? [54:24] First, you showed it. [54:33] How many have you indicted? [54:35] Excuse me, I'm going to answer the question. [54:38] Answer my question. [54:39] No, I'm going to answer the question the way I want to answer the question. [54:42] No, you're going to answer the question the way I asked it. [54:44] How many have you indicted? [54:45] Chairman Jordan, I'm not going to get in the gutter with these people, but I'm going to answer the question. [54:48] How many have you indicted? [54:49] Again, the time belongs to me. [54:50] I'm reclaiming my time. [54:51] The time belongs to me. [54:52] That included notes of statements that Donald Trump made about his prior relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. [54:59] Now, there is no reason for this to be hidden from the American people. [55:03] There is no privilege. [55:05] There is no attorney-client privilege. [55:07] And I see you're checking with your staff, and I can assure you staff, this is not under attorney-client privilege because it was sent from Jeffrey Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell. [55:17] Will you commit to publicly providing the unredacted version of this so that the American people can understand the extent of Donald Trump's lies about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? [55:31] You're about as good of a lawyer today as you were when you tried to impeach President Trump in 2016. [55:36] Have you apologized for that in 2019? [55:39] So, will you unredact this? [55:41] Will you unredact this? [55:42] You were lead counsel on that. [55:43] Privileged. [55:44] I'm asking you. [55:45] Will you unredact this? [55:46] Privileged. [55:47] I look forward to discussing this more. [55:51] Now, these are obviously improper redactions. [55:55] Let me stop for a minute. [55:56] I'm talking. [55:57] I'm talking. [55:58] If they're not privileged. [55:59] Quiet. [56:00] Don't yell at me. [56:01] If they're not privileged. [56:02] Mr. Chairman, would you stop the clock? [56:03] This is on your time. [56:04] It's not on Mr. Gohan. [56:05] If they're not privileged. [56:06] Even though you used your improper redactions. [56:07] You'll like my answer. [56:08] If we review them and they're not privileged, we will be happy to release them. [56:13] We'll stop the clock. [56:15] Time belongs to the member. [56:16] Go ahead. [56:18] Even though you used improper redactions to protect Donald Trump and other predators. [56:23] 31% of the American people. [56:25] Almost one third of the American people live in a city, county or state where the left wing leadership tells local law enforcement not to work with federal law enforcement. [56:34] Now, what does that mean in practice? [56:36] Let's look at Abraham Gonzalez, who on September 20th, 2023 was arrested by Border Patrol for illegally entering the United States. [56:46] And of course, the Biden administration released him into the country. [56:50] Five months later, February 26th, 2024, Mr. Gonzalez is charged with assault. [56:56] Two weeks later, March 11th, 2024, he's charged with felony motor vehicle theft. [57:03] Stole a car. [57:04] And on March 20th, 2024, nine days later, he's arrested by the Denver Police and placed in the Denver Justice Center. [57:11] Six days later, March 22nd, 2024, ICE sends a detainer notice to the Denver Justice Center saying this. [57:20] If you're going to release Mr. Gonzalez, can you give us a heads up? [57:24] Can you let us know maybe 48 hours before you're going to release this guy so we can come apprehend him there at the jail? [57:31] And remember, detainer is a final order of removal from a court where this individual or this individual's committed some removable offense. [57:40] But on February 28th, 2025, Abraham Gonzalez is released to the streets. [57:48] In fact, we can put that up. [57:49] I think you can see this released. [57:50] We got the form from the Denver Justice Center. [57:53] What kind of inmate was Mr. Gonzalez for those 345 days that he was in the Denver Justice Center? [58:01] We have that, too. [58:02] Violent to the staff. [58:05] Keep separate. [58:06] So this guy was so bad, you had to keep him away from other inmates. [58:10] He had already assaulted some staff member. [58:13] But Denver released this guy to the streets instead of turning him over to ICE agents who would have come to the jail and arrest him there. [58:21] And, of course, we all know what happens. [58:23] When the officers did apprehend Mr. Gonzalez out on the street, he assaulted one of the officers. [58:30] This is what happens when you have a sanctuary jurisdiction. [58:33] Right now in Minnesota, there are 1,360 detainer notices for violent offenders. [58:39] Governor Walz and others have released 470 criminal illegal aliens back to the streets. [58:47] In New York State, it's 7,000. [58:49] Nationwide, it's over 17,000 that we know of. [58:53] Where a detainer was filed, since President Trump's been in office, over 17,000 times a detainer was filed and those individuals were released to the streets instead of turned over to federal law enforcement. [59:06] 17,864 times. [59:09] Illegals who've been charged with the crime have been released, released to the streets and thereby jeopardizing the safety of the public, the safety of law enforcement and, of course, the migrant themselves. [59:22] And, frankly, helping create the environment that results in the tragic deaths like we saw with Ms. Good and Mr. Preddy. [59:29] A few years ago, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this in response to the State of the Union address. [59:35] She said the divide in America today is normal versus crazy. [59:41] And it's true. [59:42] Because it's crazy not to have a border, which is what we had in the previous administration. [59:45] It's crazy to abolish ICE. [59:47] And it's crazy to release bad guys who are here illegally to the streets when, with one phone call, federal law enforcement will come to the jail and pick them up. [59:57] The mindset of the mindset that says it's OK to release these guys is the same left wing mindset that thinks it's OK to weaponize government against your political opponents. [1:00:07] And that is exactly what we had in the previous Justice Department. [1:00:10] The Biden Harris Department of Justice called parents domestic terrorists. [1:00:16] The Biden Harris Justice Department used FBI SWAT teams to arrest pro-life advocates. [1:00:22] The Biden Harris DOJ targeted traditional Catholics. [1:00:25] The Biden Harris DOJ pressured social media companies to censor Americans. [1:00:29] And the Biden Harris Justice Department launched not one, but two investigations into President Trump, spending over $35 million to try to bring down their political opponent. [1:00:42] To further this effort, they sought the phone records of over a dozen Republican members of Congress. [1:00:47] Even the Democrats said this was wrong. [1:00:50] They got bank records for scores of White House officials. [1:00:52] They even paid at least one confidential human source $20,000 for information on President Trump. [1:00:57] And of course, while doing all this, they couldn't tell us who planted the pipe bombs, who leaked the Dobbs opinion, and who put cocaine in the White House. [1:01:05] But thank goodness the American people saw through it all. [1:01:07] Americans were tired of being targeted for their beliefs, tired of the lawfare, tired of the rampant crime throughout this country. [1:01:13] And that's why they overwhelmingly elected President Trump. [1:01:16] And what a difference a year makes. [1:01:18] What a difference a year makes. [1:01:20] Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions, upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys, and keeping Americans safe. [1:01:28] The Trump Justice Department has restored the rule of law. [1:01:31] Murders are down nationwide by 20 percent. [1:01:33] D.C. violent crime is down by 28 percent. [1:01:36] The federal surge in D.C. resulted in 8,000 arrests, the seizure of 800 illegal guns, and the recovery of 16 missing kids. [1:01:44] The Trump Justice Department apprehended a suspect in the pipe bomb investigation. [1:01:49] And they've arrested six of the FBI's top 10 most-wanted fugitives in just one year. [1:01:55] Of course, they arrested narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro, and they seized a record number of drugs flowing into this country. [1:02:01] The Trump Justice Department put an end to targeting Americans for their beliefs. [1:02:05] Attorney General Bondi rescinded Attorney General Garland's anti-parent memorandum. [1:02:11] Department of Justice ended the practices of using the FACE Act to target pro-life Americans. [1:02:17] They've refused to tolerate attacks on places of worship and investigations of traditional Catholics that we saw in the previous administration on her first day. [1:02:26] Attorney General Bondi disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force that was pressuring social media companies to censor Americans. [1:02:33] And the Trump Justice Department has ended lawfare. [1:02:37] Under Attorney General Bondi, along with Director Patel, they've worked to expose the political nature of Arctic Frost and the Jack Smith investigations. [1:02:45] They've turned over hundreds of pages of documents to Congress, and that's why we know, for example, that Mr. Smith paid at least $20,000 to some confidential human source. [1:02:55] That's why we know that Jack Smith knew it was unconstitutional, seek to toll records from members. [1:03:01] But since the litigation risk was low, and because members would never find out about the subpoena until years later, they charged ahead and violated the Constitution. [1:03:12] The Trump Justice Department has changed DOJ policy to require prosecutors to tell judges if NDOs relate to members of the separate and equal branch of government, the Congress. [1:03:24] And to top it all off, the Trump Justice Department opened an investigation into the conspiracy behind the Russia collusion hoax. [1:03:31] The Justice Department has put common sense ahead of politics. [1:03:35] They sued to keep boys out of girls' sports. [1:03:36] They secured deals with universities to stop race-based admissions and anti-Semitic practices. [1:03:41] And after discovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi, has established a new National Fraud Division. [1:03:50] In fact, I met with Colin McDonald, who will head that division last week. [1:03:53] I think he's going to do a great job. [1:03:55] There's a lot of work to be done in that area, but I want to thank the Attorney General for her great work in the first year on the job, and I want to thank you for being here. [1:04:05] With that, I would yield to the ranking member for an opening statement. [1:04:08] Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Attorney General Bondi. [1:04:13] You've got the best lawyer's job in America because your mission is justice and your clients are the American people. [1:04:20] But to promote justice for the people, you've got to listen to the victims, like the women seated behind you today. [1:04:28] Those are just some of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's global sex trafficking ring, who are demanding that the truth be told, [1:04:37] and are demanding accountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them. [1:04:43] You still haven't met with these survivors. [1:04:46] So with their permission, let me introduce to you the survivors and late survivors' family members who are present today. [1:04:53] There's Theresa Helm, there's Jess Michaels, Laura Bloom McGee, Danny Bensky, Liz Stein, Marina Lacerda, Skye and Amanda Roberts, who are the family of the late Virginia Giuffre, Charlene Richard, and Lisa Phillips. [1:05:11] Now, you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General. [1:05:15] Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, [1:05:22] as Attorney General, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims. [1:05:29] That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. [1:05:34] You're running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice. [1:05:39] You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over six million documents, photographs and videos in Epstein files, [1:05:47] but you've turned over only three million. [1:05:49] You say you're not turning over the other three million because they're somehow duplicative, [1:05:54] but we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there, [1:05:59] and you also took down the Department of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. [1:06:05] So it's clearly not all duplicative, but even if it were, why not release it? [1:06:09] Just release all the duplicative stuff. [1:06:11] In the half you did produce, you redacted the names of abusers, enablers, accomplices and co-conspirators, [1:06:20] apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. [1:06:27] Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims' names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. [1:06:36] Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not. [1:06:40] Many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends, [1:06:46] but you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. [1:06:56] So you ignored the law, and even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, [1:07:02] you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference and jaded cruelty [1:07:10] towards more than 1,000 victims raped, abused and trafficked. [1:07:15] This performance screams cover-up. [1:07:19] Convicted sex trafficker and groomer, Ghislaine Maxwell, opened the gates of hell [1:07:24] to Virginia Giuffre and hundreds of other victims, as Virginia recorded in her remarkable book, Nobody's Girl. [1:07:31] But when Maxwell was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress, [1:07:35] you and Todd Blanche quickly moved her from a higher security prison [1:07:40] to a minimum security camp in Texas, where she's enjoyed five-star treatment, [1:07:45] including catered meals, private gym time and access to a therapy puppy. [1:07:52] All because Todd Blanche, who's utterly failed to investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators, [1:08:00] spent nine hours with Maxwell and satisfied himself that she would have nothing untoward to say about Donald Trump, [1:08:13] which is your only real interest in the matter based on institutional performance. [1:08:18] But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators is what you do best. [1:08:23] When the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutal killing in Minneapolis of Renee Goode, [1:08:29] a poet and 37-year-old mother of three by Trump's masked paramilitary ICE agents, you shut it down. [1:08:36] You claim you're investigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Preddy, an ICU nurse at the VA. [1:08:42] But how can we trust the administration when the president and Kristi Noem called Preddy a domestic terrorist, [1:08:48] and Stephen Miller called him a would-be assassin? [1:08:51] Not only do you refuse to share evidence with the state and local investigators and prosecutors in Minnesota, [1:08:58] you have blocked their access to the crime scene and the evidence. [1:09:02] How are you seeking justice for Marimar Martinez, the Montessori school teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by a border patrol agent, [1:09:11] who bragged about it on text? [1:09:13] Or the family of Keith Porter, a father of two, shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in LA? [1:09:19] Or the family of Silverio Villas Gonzalez, shot and killed in Illinois minutes after he dropped his kids off at school? [1:09:26] There's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice. [1:09:30] You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. [1:09:35] How sick is that? [1:09:37] But it's even worse, you've turned the People's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. [1:09:45] Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time. [1:09:49] He tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, [1:09:56] and members of Congress like Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slotkin, Chrissy Houlihan, Jason Crowe, Chris Deluzio, and Maggie Goodlander, [1:10:05] to name a few, and you snap to it. [1:10:07] You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stooges who robotically do the president's bidding. [1:10:14] Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement. [1:10:23] The good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, including some of your own original appointees, have refused your lawless orders. [1:10:32] Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, resigned rather than follow your corrupt order to quash an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams as a political favor from Donald Trump. [1:10:45] A Federalist Society member who clerked for Justice Scalia, U.S. Attorney Sassoon refused to participate in this blatantly corrupt scheme. [1:10:52] Her top assistant, Hagan Scotton, an Iraqi war vet and two-time Bronze Star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, and then Judge Kavanaugh, promptly resigned too, writing to your office, quote, [1:11:04] I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me. [1:11:14] You and the president nominated Eric Siebert, a 15-year career prosecutor, to be your U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. [1:11:21] But after five months of investigating Letitia James and James Comey, he found no evidence to justify criminal charges. [1:11:31] So you forced him out. You replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mar-a-Lago documents case, who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications. [1:11:44] And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corrupt appointment was blatantly unlawful and threw out Halligan's indictments entirely. [1:11:52] And grand juries of American citizens have repeatedly rejected your vendettas and baseless indictments brought by the hacks left at DOJ. [1:12:00] Now with two different grand juries in Virginia voting down indictments against Letitia James in a single week. [1:12:06] And just yesterday, another grand jury shut down your vendetta factory by rejecting indictments against the six members of Congress who had spoken out to remind all service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. [1:12:20] You tried to get a grand jury to indict six members of Congress who were veterans of our armed forces on charges of seditious conspiracy simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. [1:12:32] I hope you will heed the wisdom and the constitutional patriotism of those grand jurors and not try it again by doubling down on that humiliation. [1:12:40] As your best lawyers are sacked for having participated in the January six case or just flee for the exits. [1:12:46] Now your new lawyers keep lying in court in dozens of cases. [1:12:50] They've been excoriated for lying to federal judges. [1:12:53] Chief Judge Bose Berg right here in D.C. suggested your Department of Justice perpetrated a fraud on the court. [1:13:00] Other judges found your statements to be, quote, inexplicably misleading, patently incredible, totally inconsistent, and so disingenuous that the court is left with little confidence that the government can be trusted to tell the truth about anything. [1:13:17] Now, as ranking ranking member, I asked the chairman to add a few extra rounds of questions today because we each have five hours of questions, not five minutes, but we're stuck with five minutes. [1:13:30] That's clearly insufficient to give voice to America's victims and survivors and to demand answers about all the corruption and cover ups that we see at DOJ right now. [1:13:39] We've got just one round, so we ask you politely but firmly, Madam Attorney General, please do not waste one second of our precious time by evading questions, by changing the subject, or engaging in personal attacks against members of Congress. [1:13:56] We saw your performance in the Senate, and we're not going to accept that. [1:13:59] This isn't a game. [1:14:01] In the Senate, you brought something with you called a burn book, a binder of smears to attack members personally for doing the people's work of oversight. [1:14:10] Please set the burn book aside and answer our questions, and when you hear us reclaim our time, that means it's time for you to stop speaking. [1:14:18] We only have five minutes, so when we reclaim our time, that means you stop. [1:14:22] And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock and let you go on his time. [1:14:27] The quality of justice in America depends on the character of our government. [1:14:32] Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice back from the brink. [1:14:36] The survivors seated behind you and the American people watching everywhere deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. [1:14:43] I yield back, Mr. Chair. [1:14:44] Without objection, all of the opening statements will be included in the record. [1:14:47] We will now introduce today's witness. [1:14:48] The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi has served as the Attorney General of the United States since February 5th, 2025. [1:14:54] Previously served in the Office of the White House Counsel, two terms as the Florida Attorney General, and spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor. [1:15:01] We welcome our witness and thank her for appearing today. [1:15:04] We will begin by swearing you in. [1:15:05] Would you please rise and raise your right hand? [1:15:08] Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and beliefs so help you God? [1:15:19] I do. [1:15:20] Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. [1:15:22] Thank you. [1:15:23] You can be seated. [1:15:24] And please know that your written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. [1:15:28] Accordingly, we ask that you summarize your testimony. [1:15:32] Madam Attorney General, you may begin. [1:15:34] Thank you. [1:15:36] Thank you, Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Raskin, and distinguished members of this committee. [1:15:41] Thank you for hosting me here today. [1:15:43] I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer your questions, highlight the work of our department, and discuss the most important topic of all, keeping the American people safe. [1:15:54] A little over a year ago, I was sworn into office as the 87th Attorney General of the United States. [1:16:01] I came into office with the goal of refocusing the Department of Justice on its core mission after years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization. [1:16:12] The Department of Justice's core mission is to fight violent crime, protect the American people, and defend the rule of law above all else. [1:16:23] While our work is never done, we have made tremendous progress to make America safe again. [1:16:30] In 2025, we saw the lowest murder rate in 125 years. [1:16:36] That's nothing short of historic. [1:16:39] If you compare 25 to 24, here's what you'll find. [1:16:44] The murder rate is down 21 percent. [1:16:47] Robbery down 23 percent. [1:16:49] Carjacking down 43 percent. [1:16:51] Gun assault down 22 percent. [1:16:54] Ag assault, burglary, could go on and on. [1:16:57] Crime is declining. [1:16:59] This did not happen by accident. [1:17:02] The numbers tell an important, yet straightforward story. [1:17:06] President Trump has given us the resources, the support, and the leadership to protect the American people. [1:17:15] President Trump's policies have saved lives. [1:17:18] I cannot think of a policy outcome more important than protecting the lives of American citizens. [1:17:26] Can you? [1:17:27] This trend has been especially clear in Washington, D.C., and in Memphis. [1:17:33] These are two iconic American cities that spent years in the grip of horrific violent crime. [1:17:41] The Department of Justice surged law enforcement resources, and the results came quickly. [1:17:47] Crime plummeted in both cities. [1:17:50] And I want to make one point loud and clear. [1:17:54] We achieved those results by working with Democratic mayors. [1:17:59] Public safety does not have a party registration. [1:18:05] When your constituents call 9-1-1, they don't ask for political views of the responding officer. [1:18:11] They ask for help. [1:18:13] I have federal agents in each and every one of your districts. [1:18:18] They're here to help, and I am here to help. [1:18:21] Many cities and states have worked with us and taken advantage of our federal support. [1:18:28] Some have not. [1:18:30] Meanwhile, a few elected officials have declared that they are, quote, at war with the federal government, [1:18:35] and encouraged widespread obstruction of law enforcement. [1:18:39] This has resulted in avoidable clashes on the streets, as you've all seen. [1:18:45] We've seen rioters storming a Christian church. [1:18:49] Citizens and law enforcement officers have both been endangered by reckless rhetoric. [1:18:57] We have made dozens of arrests in and around Minneapolis so far, [1:19:02] and many of them could have been avoided by simple compliance with federal law. [1:19:07] Of course, our efforts reach beyond our urban centers. [1:19:13] We are striking crucial blows against terrorist organizations such as MS-13, TDA, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Antifa. [1:19:23] And as we sit here, I think you've seen the news this morning. [1:19:28] The news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. [1:19:35] That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America. [1:19:40] As we seek to dismantle these drug trafficking networks that poison Americans, in 2025, our DEA agents seized more than 47 million fentanyl pills and more than 9,800 total kilos of fentanyl. [1:20:05] That represents 369 million potentially deadly doses that can kill Americans. [1:20:16] Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for President Trump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. [1:20:23] This administration has been sued 627 times. [1:20:27] We've fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. [1:20:37] America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. [1:20:47] It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process. [1:20:58] In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court, their emergency docket and even more to come. [1:21:12] We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping FASAC prosecutions, exposing the Arctic Frost scandal via congressional disclosure. [1:21:24] Thank you, Chairman, and restoring one tier of justice in this country. [1:21:29] To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress's law. [1:21:45] We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims. [1:22:02] And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it. [1:22:09] All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves. [1:22:16] I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. [1:22:22] I'm a career prosecutor, and despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. [1:22:37] I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster. [1:22:46] If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you. [1:22:59] I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated. [1:23:09] The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law. [1:23:17] In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1,700 child predators, a 10% increase from 2024. [1:23:26] We also located 2,700 victims of child exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. [1:23:41] 3.8 million. [1:23:43] So please, if you have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI. [1:23:51] Today, I look forward to discussing further our shared obligation to protect the American people, uphold the rule of law, and keep this nation safe. [1:24:05] Thank you. [1:24:06] Thank you, Madam Attorney General. [1:24:07] We now proceed under the five-minute rule. [1:24:09] The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for five minutes. [1:24:11] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [1:24:12] Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible over the years in the Epstein debacle. [1:24:26] Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civil rights, between criminal, between so-called white-collar crime. [1:24:37] And doing so, as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the president are under attack and our ICE agents and FBI and others are under attack when they try to enforce law. [1:24:49] I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden, support, or even stand with those lawbreakers that sit on this and other daises here in Congress. [1:25:06] My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the chairman of that subcommittee. [1:25:13] I'll forgo that today because one of my other jobs is the creation and maintenance of Article III judges, and I work with the Chief Justice on that, and we're trying to expand the court. [1:25:26] But currently, there are only 677 district court judges. [1:25:30] They have very full dockets as well. [1:25:34] But you create a tremendous amount of judges, particularly immigration judges. [1:25:40] You do so in order to save the court that, but adjudicate, as is requirement, each of those people who claim a right to be here in the United States. [1:25:53] And that has been going on under Republican and Democratic administrations for years. [1:25:58] What's unique about the Trump administration this time is that you and President Trump have managed to reduce the backlog of people seeking that for the first time in decades. [1:26:12] You are getting ahead of that tremendous backlog that caused, for better or worse, the release of millions of people with little pieces of paper saying, [1:26:22] come back later when we call you and often to no avail when you call. [1:26:28] So I want to congratulate you on that because it's an accomplishment you might not take credit for and the other side would never give you credit for. [1:26:37] But I hope you can continue to do that and do more. [1:26:40] And I say so for a reason, because much of this hearing will be about Minneapolis and other places in which the backlog of criminal aliens, including in my home state of California, [1:26:55] people who have hurt other people, people who have victimized their communities, is extensive. [1:27:01] And although the overall number through adjudication may be going on, because of places like my home state, California, [1:27:09] you're unable to apprehend people that my sheriffs want apprehended. [1:27:14] They desperately want to cooperate and they're prohibited by law. [1:27:19] It is this committee's opinion on this side of the aisle that, in fact, you should be given the ability to demand that participation [1:27:29] and that the release of a known criminal not be considered to be acceptable just because a state or city has declared itself a sanctuary. [1:27:39] I want you to opine on just one thing that I think has been misunderstood. [1:27:44] As I said earlier, you create and maintain that those judges that adjudicate these cases. [1:27:51] You also support so many that, in fact, have to make decisions as judges. [1:28:03] Knowing that this limitation of so few Article III judges are there, please educate those who seem to miss the point that Article I judges, [1:28:13] including bankruptcy judges, including immigration judges, including lots of people with the title appropriately judge, [1:28:21] do in fact issue documents that look like, act like and are normally accepted as warrants, as subpoenas, [1:28:31] as demands for state officials to stand aside and allow the production of either an individual or documents. [1:28:40] Because I think people are missing the point that these ICE retainers and detainers and so on, they act like they're nothing. [1:28:48] When in fact, in the ordinary course, Madam General, you do in fact have Article I judges constantly putting those out and they are respected normally. [1:28:58] Thank you, Congressman, for talking about all the great judges. [1:29:08] And if I could add one thing to that, we are always recruiting and looking for judges. [1:29:14] So please reach out to our office for these judges who are handling all these very important matters. [1:29:21] We've even added some JAG officers as immigration judges. [1:29:26] Thank you. [1:29:27] And so we're continuing to do that. [1:29:29] But we're always seeking qualified lawyers as well to be part of that. [1:29:33] And thank you for highlighting that, Congressman. [1:29:36] Thank you. I yield back. [1:29:37] The gentleman yields back. The gentlelady from Washington is recognized. [1:29:39] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Attorney General Bondi right here. [1:29:45] We are joined in this room by some of the thousands of survivors from Jeffrey Epstein's horrific sex trafficking ring. [1:29:53] They have shown such incredible courage in speaking out, in demanding accountability to bring the predators and pedophiles to justice. [1:30:03] The Epstein Files Transparency Act required your Department of Justice to disclose the perpetrators connected with Epstein's criminal activities and to redact the information of survivors to protect their identities. [1:30:18] Let me show you what actually happened. [1:30:22] First, in violation of the law, your department has shown a pattern of redacting the names of powerful predators. [1:30:30] Here, behind me, is one example of an email from Epstein to a man whose name was redacted. [1:30:37] The email reads, quote, [1:30:40] Where are you? Are you okay? I loved the torture video. [1:30:46] Only after members of Congress demanded that we see the unredacted files did the world learn the name of this individual, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayam, the chairman and CEO of a company that had financial ties to President Trump's business and personal ties to Trump's advisor, Steve Bannon. [1:31:08] Second, the survivors were not similarly protected, also in violation of the law. [1:31:16] Here is another email titled Epstein victim list. [1:31:20] We have blurred the names of the survivors for their protection, but your Department of Justice initially released this list of 32 survivors' names with only one name redacted. [1:31:33] Along with numerous files that disclosed not only the names, the emails and the addresses of survivors, but also nude photographs and even the identities of Jane Doe's, who had been protected for decades until your department released their names. [1:31:52] Survivors are now telling us that their families are finding out for the first time that they were trafficked by Epstein. [1:31:59] In their words, quote, [1:32:01] This release does not provide closure. [1:32:04] It feels like a deliberate attempt to intimidate survivors, punish those who came forward and reinforce the same culture of secrecy that allowed Epstein's crimes to continue for decades. [1:32:17] To the survivors in the room, if you are willing, please stand. [1:32:29] And if you are willing, please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice. [1:32:37] Please know for the record that every single survivor has raised their hand. [1:32:43] Attorney General Bondi, you apologize to the survivors in your opening statement for what they went through at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. [1:32:54] Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information? [1:33:19] Congresswoman, you set before Merrick Garland set in this chair twice. [1:33:26] Attorney General Bondi, can I finish my answer? [1:33:29] No, I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked you a specific question that I would like you to answer, which is will you turn to the survivors? [1:33:40] This is not about anybody that came before you. [1:33:43] It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize for what your Department of Justice has done. [1:34:00] Members get to ask the questions. [1:34:02] The witness gets to answer in the way they want to answer. [1:34:04] The Attorney General can respond. [1:34:05] That's not accurate, Mr. Chairman. [1:34:07] Because she doesn't like the answer. [1:34:10] It is my time. [1:34:11] So, um, Mr. Chairman. [1:34:12] Why didn't she ask Merrick Garland this twice when he sat in my chair? [1:34:15] I am reclaiming my time, and when I reclaim my time, it is mine. [1:34:20] I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics. [1:34:23] The time belongs to the gentlelady. [1:34:25] The gentlelady has 17 seconds. [1:34:27] Thank you. [1:34:28] You're not going to answer this question, so let me just say this. [1:34:32] Chairman, I'll direct it to you. [1:34:33] What a massive cover-up. [1:34:34] No, I'm answering a question. [1:34:35] Mr. Chairman, will you restore her time? [1:34:36] The witness is interrupting. [1:34:37] I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman. [1:34:38] Stop the time. [1:34:39] She's doing theatrics. [1:34:40] She's doing theatrics. [1:34:41] The gentlelady from Washington controls the time. [1:34:44] The gentlelady has 17 seconds. [1:34:45] You can proceed with your final 17 seconds. [1:34:47] Thank you. [1:34:48] What a massive cover-up this has been and continues to be. [1:34:52] Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein files the center of his political campaign because he thought it would benefit him. [1:34:58] Then you got into office, Attorney General, claimed to have a client list, only to then say that there was no list. [1:35:05] Your deputy, Todd Blanche, met alone with Elaine Maxwell and transferred her to a minimum security prison. [1:35:14] And now you continue the cover-up. [1:35:16] The time of the gentlelady has expired. [1:35:17] And I wish that you would turn around to the survivors who are standing right behind you and on a human level apologizing for that. [1:35:25] Chairman, I'm what you have done. [1:35:27] The time of the gentlelady has expired. [1:35:29] I yield back. [1:35:30] The gentlelady has expired. [1:35:31] You have no time to yield back. [1:35:32] We appreciate that. [1:35:33] We appreciate the thought. [1:35:35] And I would argue the central issue in the last election, the presidential election, was securing the border. [1:35:40] The gentleman from Arizona who knows something about securing the border is up for five minutes. [1:35:45] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [1:35:46] And thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for being here today. [1:35:49] In 2022, Lafarge, which is a French cement company, pled guilty in U.S. federal court to participating in a criminal conspiracy with ISIS. [1:35:59] That conspiracy contributed to the deaths of U.S. service members fighting in Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve. [1:36:07] As part of the plea agreement, Lafarge was required to pay more than $775 million to DOJ's asset forfeiture fund. [1:36:15] In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission submitted by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. [1:36:26] The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved. [1:36:32] My question for you on this particular issue is if you are willing to work to ensure those families that their petitions will be reviewed and brought to a resolution. [1:36:42] Congressman, we are aware of that and we are committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. [1:36:49] Thank you for that question. [1:36:50] Yeah, I appreciate your answer. [1:36:52] And now let's go to something that is also pressing that I've been working on for years, and this is the FISA Section 702 and Arctic Frost. [1:37:01] In January 2025, you testified before the U.S. Senate and agreed with Senator Lee that, quote, [1:37:06] anytime an American citizen's private communications are intercepted or stored, whether through incidental collection or otherwise, [1:37:12] those communications should not be searched without some showing of probable cause, close quote. [1:37:17] Do you still hold that view today, I assume? [1:37:20] Yes. [1:37:23] And during the most recent FISA reauthorization, I offered an amendment to establish a clear warrant requirement for searches of Americans' data [1:37:31] while preserving every publicly cited operational exception, including emergencies, defensive queries, cybersecurity threats. [1:37:40] And my intent was to ensure the Department of Justice could continue to keep Americans safe while also ending warrantless searches of U.S. persons' data. [1:37:48] Are there any additional circumstances or exceptions that you believe must be included to ensure DOJ can continue to operate effectively while still protecting American citizens' data and privacy? [1:38:00] Yeah, Congressman, we are committed to working with Congress to uncover weaponization and other misconduct by Jack Smith, by others, Arctic Frost, everything that happened under the past administration. [1:38:15] And we are committed to working with you on that. [1:38:19] And we are working with Chairman Jordan, with the House Intel, with all of my fellow Cabinet members on resolving that issue. [1:38:31] Well, thank you. [1:38:32] And I'm glad you brought up Arctic Frost, because Section 702 was used in the Arctic Frost investigation. [1:38:38] It was. [1:38:39] And information derived was used by Special Counsel Jack Smith. [1:38:44] And my question has always been, and no one's been able to answer this, is what was the legal predicate for using a foreign intelligence authority in the Arctic Frost investigation? [1:38:55] Have you been able to ascertain any legal predicate? [1:38:59] Congressman, what I can tell you today is that has been referred to my office. [1:39:06] I can't discuss anything regarding that, because it is very active and ongoing. [1:39:11] And you probably can't answer this one either, but I really want to know if Section 702 queries related to that matter involved members of Congress, which we know at some level it did, congressional staff, which we know at some level did. [1:39:24] We've heard that journalists or other U.S. persons not suspected of acting as foreign agents were also caught up in that. [1:39:30] Can you answer that question and say whether queries did cover all those those groups I just identified? [1:39:36] It is a very active pending investigation within my office. [1:39:41] However, I believe many members of Congress have stated that their phones were were part of Arctic Frost. [1:39:53] We are well aware of that and we are taking this very seriously. [1:39:58] And this is a very active investigation. [1:40:00] And I would keep going and say if any member of the Democrat Party, if any of them that had happened to them, we would take that just as serious as we do. [1:40:10] And they should be jumping up and down, screaming, supporting you and what you want to do, because this should be a bipartisan issue. [1:40:19] Well, I hope it is a bipartisan issue. [1:40:21] And, you know, I'll just leave with these last couple of questions, which I'm sure fall into the same investigation privilege. [1:40:31] But that's this how many such queries were actually conducted to overall this is outside Arctic Frost in the prior year by by the FBI or other intelligence community. [1:40:40] And particularly, we really need to know what were what were these legal standards applied? [1:40:46] Did they use probable cause? [1:40:47] Did they use reasonable, articulable suspicion? [1:40:49] Or did they have no individualized suspicion and just were gathering up information? [1:40:53] And that's that's beyond the investigation regarding Arctic Frost. [1:40:58] I don't expect you to have that information today. [1:41:01] But if you can help get that information so we can understand the extensive nature of this continued misuse of 702, it would be very particularly helpful. [1:41:12] And it was extensive. [1:41:13] Yes, Congressman. [1:41:14] Thank you. [1:41:15] Time of the gentleman has expired. [1:41:16] I have a UC, Mr. Chairman. [1:41:18] And that is the general aide from Texas. [1:41:21] I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record. [1:41:24] El Paso airspace reopened after FAA quickly rescinds 10 day flights restriction. [1:41:30] This was published by the Texas Tribune on February 11th, 2026. [1:41:34] And it says it was because of an impasse with the DOD over the use of unmanned military aircraft and not triggered by Mexican cartel drones. [1:41:43] Not objection. [1:41:44] Point of order, Mr. Chairman. [1:41:46] I didn't hear back about the second round of questions. [1:41:49] I assume that's not happening. [1:41:50] I just want to be able to assure the members, certainly on my side, if not both sides, that every member will get five minutes with the witness. [1:42:01] Will there be five minutes for each? [1:42:03] Yeah, you'll get five minutes. [1:42:04] With the witness. [1:42:05] Okay, very good. [1:42:06] Okay. [1:42:07] And are you up next? [1:42:08] The gentleman from New York is recognized. [1:42:12] Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by acknowledging the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's horrific abuse who are in the room with us today. [1:42:19] I want to thank all of you for your bravery in speaking out. [1:42:22] I want to say that you and the other survivors of these heinous crimes deserve better from this Department of Justice. [1:42:29] In particular, it is shocking that the Department did not redact the names of Epstein's victims, but it did redact the names of their abusers. [1:42:38] I don't know whether this was done out of incompetence or whether it was deliberate and malicious, but either way, it is completely unacceptable. [1:42:45] Even more troubling, the DOJ has failed to bring any of these perpetrators to justice. [1:42:51] Instead, it has engaged in a relentless pursuit of Donald Trump's perceived enemies. [1:42:57] I want to focus on just one example. [1:42:59] The Attorney General of my home state of New York, Tish James. [1:43:03] This DOJ has been hell-bent on securing an indictment against Ms. James for something, anything, simply because she held Donald Trump's companies accountable for years of financial fraud. [1:43:15] And indeed, the Department manufactured an investigation against her for alleged, quote, mortgage fraud. [1:43:21] But the DOJ attorney leading the investigation, Eric Siebert, a Trump appointee, refused to bring charges against Ms. James because there was simply no evidence. [1:43:30] Unfortunately, a prosecutor who refuses to do Trump's bidding has no place in this DOJ, so Mr. Siebert was forced out. [1:43:41] Trump could not contain his fury, fury that he expressed to you in a social media post addressed to you by name. [1:43:47] I'm sure you've seen it. [1:43:48] Quote, I fired him and there is a great case he wrote to you about, Mr. Siebert. [1:43:53] Then we moved down. [1:43:54] We can't delay any longer. [1:43:56] It's killing our reputation and credibility. [1:43:58] They impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing. [1:44:03] Justice must be served now. [1:44:05] And obviously, you followed that order. [1:44:08] Lindsey Halligan, Trump's former defense lawyer who had never prosecuted the case in her life, was installed to replace Mr. Siebert. [1:44:17] And it was clear that part of her mandate was to go after Ms. James. [1:44:21] Halligan immediately sought an indictment, which the court dismissed because Halligan was illegally put into the road. [1:44:27] But your department was undeterred. [1:44:29] And not once, but twice, it tried to indict Attorney General James in separate courts. [1:44:34] Both grand juries rejected you and refused to indict her. [1:44:38] It is practically unheard of for a grand jury to refuse an indictment. [1:44:43] In 2016, it happened in just six cases out of over 150,000 offenses. [1:44:51] And you had it happen twice in the same week in two different courts. [1:44:55] That must have been humiliating. [1:44:57] Now there are reports that you are continuing to investigate her. [1:45:00] The amount of resources that have gone into targeting Attorney General James, months of investigations, multiple failed indictments, is astounding. [1:45:08] Since your own prosecutors told you that there is not enough evidence to support a conviction, [1:45:13] it's clear that you are going after her simply because she held President Trump accountable and he wants to punish her. [1:45:20] And she is just one name on a long list of Trump political enemies that DOJ has reportedly targeting. [1:45:26] From Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserve to James Comey, numerous Democratic members of Congress, [1:45:33] John Brennan, Jack Smith, Democratic officials in Minnesota, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylors, and more. [1:45:39] And those are just the ones we know about. [1:45:42] In contrast to these politically motivated investigations grasping at something they can charge their enemies with, [1:45:48] We now have concrete evidence of disgusting criminality revealed in the Epstein files. [1:45:53] So I really have just one question for you. [1:45:57] How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? [1:46:00] How many perpetrators are you even investigating? [1:46:04] First, you showed it. [1:46:12] How many have you indicted? [1:46:14] Excuse me, I'm going to answer the question. [1:46:16] Answer my question. [1:46:17] No, I'm going to answer the question the way I want to answer the question. [1:46:20] No, you're going to answer the question the way I asked it. [1:46:22] Chairman Jordan, I'm not going to get in the gutter with these people. [1:46:25] How many of you? [1:46:26] But I'm going to answer the question. [1:46:27] How many have you indicted? [1:46:28] Again, the time belongs to me. [1:46:29] Reclaiming my time. [1:46:30] The time belongs to me. [1:46:31] Included notes of statements that Donald Trump made about his prior relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. [1:46:37] Now, there is no reason for this to be hidden from the American people. [1:46:43] There is no privilege. [1:46:44] There is no attorney-client privilege. [1:46:46] And I see you're checking with your staff. [1:46:48] And I can assure you, staff, this is not under attorney-client privilege because it was sent from Jeffrey Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell. [1:46:56] Will you commit to publicly providing the unredacted version of this so that the American people can understand the extent of Donald Trump's lies about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? [1:47:09] You're about as good of a lawyer today as you were when you tried to impeach President Trump in 2016. [1:47:15] Have you apologized for that in 2019? [1:47:17] So, will you unredact this? [1:47:19] Will you unredact this? [1:47:20] You're lead counsel on that. [1:47:21] Privileged. [1:47:22] I'm asking you. [1:47:23] Will you unredact this? [1:47:24] Privileged. [1:47:26] Privileged, of course. [1:47:27] I look forward to discussing this more. [1:47:30] Now, these are obviously improper redactions. [1:47:33] And let me stop for a minute. [1:47:34] I'm talking. [1:47:35] I'm talking. [1:47:36] If they're not privileged. [1:47:37] Quiet. [1:47:38] Don't yell at me. [1:47:39] If they're not privileged. [1:47:40] Mr. Chairman, would you stop the clock? [1:47:41] This is on your time. [1:47:42] It's not on Mr. Gohan. [1:47:43] Even though you used your improper redactions. [1:47:45] If we review them and they're not. [1:47:46] You'll like my answer. [1:47:47] If we review them and they're not privileged. [1:47:49] Time belongs to the member. [1:47:50] We will be happy to release them. [1:47:52] We'll stop the clock. [1:47:53] We'll stop the clock. [1:47:54] Time belongs to the member. [1:47:55] Go ahead. [1:47:57] Even though you used improper redactions. [1:47:59] To protect Donald Trump. [1:48:00] And other predators associated. [1:48:02] 31% of the American people. [1:48:04] Almost one third of the American people. [1:48:06] Live in a city, county or state. [1:48:07] Where the left wing leadership. [1:48:09] Tells local law enforcement. [1:48:10] Not to work with federal law enforcement. [1:48:13] Now, what does that mean in practice? [1:48:16] Let's look at Abraham Gonzalez. [1:48:18] Who on September 20th, 2023. [1:48:21] Was arrested by Border Patrol. [1:48:23] For illegally entering the United States. [1:48:25] And of course. [1:48:26] The Biden administration released him into the country. [1:48:29] Five months later. [1:48:31] February 26th, 2024. [1:48:34] Mr. Gonzalez is charged with assault. [1:48:36] Two weeks later. [1:48:37] March 11th, 2024. [1:48:38] He's charged with felony motor vehicle theft. [1:48:42] Stole a car. [1:48:43] And on March 20th, 2024. [1:48:46] Nine days later. [1:48:47] He's arrested by the Denver police. [1:48:49] And placed in the Denver Justice Center. [1:48:51] Six days. [1:48:52] Six days later. [1:48:53] March 22nd, 2024. [1:48:55] Ice sends a detainer notice to the Denver Justice Center. [1:48:58] Saying this. [1:48:59] If you're going to release Mr. Gonzalez. [1:49:02] Can you give us a heads up? [1:49:04] Can you let us know maybe 48 hours. [1:49:06] Before you're going to release this guy. [1:49:08] So we can come apprehend him. [1:49:09] There at the jail. [1:49:10] And remember detainer is a final order of removal. [1:49:14] From a court. [1:49:17] Where this individual. [1:49:18] Or this individuals committed some removable offense. [1:49:20] But on February 28th, 2025. [1:49:23] Abraham Gonzalez is released to the streets. [1:49:26] In fact, we can put that up. [1:49:27] I think you can see this. [1:49:28] Released. [1:49:29] We got the form from the Denver Justice Center. [1:49:31] What kind of inmate was Mr. Gonzalez. [1:49:34] For those 345 days. [1:49:36] That he was in the Denver Justice Center. [1:49:39] We have that too. [1:49:40] Violent to the staff. [1:49:43] Keep separate. [1:49:44] So this guy was so bad. [1:49:47] You had to keep him away from other inmates. [1:49:49] He had already assaulted some staff member. [1:49:53] But Denver released this guy to the streets. [1:49:56] And instead of turning over to ICE agents. [1:49:58] Who would have come to the jail and arrest him there. [1:50:01] And of course we all know what happens. [1:50:03] When the officers did apprehend Mr. Gonzalez. [1:50:05] Out on the street. [1:50:07] He assaulted one of the officers. [1:50:10] This is what happens when you have a sanctuary jurisdiction. [1:50:13] Right now in Minnesota. [1:50:14] There are 1,360 detainer notices. [1:50:17] For violent offenders. [1:50:18] Governor Walz. [1:50:19] And others have released 470 criminal illegal aliens back to the streets. [1:50:25] In New York State it's 7,000. [1:50:27] Nationwide it's over 17,000 that we know of. [1:50:31] Where a detainer was filed. [1:50:34] Since President Trump's been in office. [1:50:36] Over 17,000 times a detainer was filed. [1:50:38] And those individuals were released to the streets. [1:50:41] Instead of turned over to federal law enforcement. [1:50:44] 17,864 times. [1:50:48] Illegals who've been charged with the crime. [1:50:50] Have been released. [1:50:51] Released to the streets. [1:50:52] And thereby jeopardizing the safety of the public. [1:50:55] The safety of law enforcement. [1:50:57] And of course the migrant themselves. [1:50:59] And frankly helping create the environment. [1:51:02] That results in the tragic deaths. [1:51:05] Like we saw with Ms. Good. [1:51:06] And Mr. Preddy. [1:51:07] A few years ago. [1:51:10] Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said this. [1:51:13] In response to the State of the Union address. [1:51:15] She said the divide in America today. [1:51:17] Is normal versus crazy. [1:51:19] And it's true. [1:51:20] Because it's crazy not to have a border. [1:51:23] Which is what we had in the previous administration. [1:51:25] It's crazy to abolish ICE. [1:51:26] And it's crazy to release bad guys. [1:51:28] Who are here illegally to the streets. [1:51:30] When with one phone call. [1:51:32] Federal law enforcement will come to the jail. [1:51:34] And pick them up. [1:51:38] The mindset. [1:51:39] The mindset that says it's okay to release these guys. [1:51:41] Is the same left wing mindset. [1:51:43] That thinks it's okay to weaponize government. [1:51:45] Against your political opponents. [1:51:47] And that is exactly what we had in the previous Justice Department. [1:51:50] The Biden Harris Department of Justice called parents domestic terrorists. [1:51:54] The Biden Harris Justice Department used FBI SWAT teams to arrest pro-life advocates. [1:52:00] The Biden Harris DOJ targeted traditional Catholics. [1:52:05] The Biden Harris DOJ pressured social media companies to censor Americans. [1:52:08] And the Biden Harris Justice Department. [1:52:10] Launched not one. [1:52:12] But two investigations into President Trump. [1:52:15] Spending over 35 million dollars. [1:52:17] To try to bring down. [1:52:19] Their political opponent. [1:52:21] To further this effort. [1:52:22] They sought the phone records of over a dozen Republican members of Congress. [1:52:26] Even the Democrats said this was wrong. [1:52:28] They got bank records for scores of White House officials. [1:52:32] They even paid at least one confidential human source $20,000 for information on President Trump. [1:52:37] And of course while doing all this. [1:52:39] They couldn't tell us who planted the pipe bombs. [1:52:41] Who leaked the Dobbs opinion. [1:52:42] And who put cocaine in the White House. [1:52:44] But thank goodness the American people saw through it all. [1:52:47] Americans were tired of being targeted for their beliefs. [1:52:49] Tired of the lawfare. [1:52:50] Tired of the rampant crime throughout this country. [1:52:52] And that's why they overwhelmingly elected President Trump. [1:52:55] And what a difference a year makes. [1:52:58] What a difference a year makes. [1:53:00] Under Attorney General Bondi. [1:53:01] The DOJ has returned to its core missions. [1:53:04] Upholding the rule of law. [1:53:05] Going after the bad guys. [1:53:06] And keeping Americans safe. [1:53:07] The Trump Justice Department has restored the rule of law. [1:53:10] Murders are down nationwide by 20%. [1:53:12] And DC violent crime is down by 28%. [1:53:15] The federal surge in DC resulted in 8,000 arrests. [1:53:19] The seizure of 800 illegal guns. [1:53:21] And the recovery of 16 missing kids. [1:53:23] The Trump Justice Department apprehended a suspect in the pipe bomb investigation. [1:53:27] And they've arrested 6 of the FBI's top 10 most wanted fugitives. [1:53:33] In just one year. [1:53:34] Of course, they arrested narco-terrorist Nicolas Maduro. [1:53:37] And they seized a record number of drugs flowing into this country. [1:53:40] The Trump Justice Department put an end to targeting Americans for their beliefs. [1:53:45] Attorney General Bondi rescinded Attorney General Garland's anti-parent memorandum. [1:53:52] The Department of Justice ended the practices of using the FACE Act to target pro-life Americans. [1:53:57] They've refused to tolerate attacks on places of worship. [1:54:00] And investigations of traditional Catholics that we saw in the previous administration on her first day. [1:54:05] Attorney General Bondi disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force. [1:54:08] That was pressuring social media companies to censor Americans. [1:54:12] And the Trump Justice Department has ended lawfare. [1:54:16] Under Attorney General Bondi, along with Director Patel. [1:54:18] They've worked to expose the political nature of Arctic Frost. [1:54:22] And the Jack Smith investigations. [1:54:24] They've turned over hundreds of pages of documents to Congress. [1:54:27] And that's why we know, for example, that Mr. Smith paid at least $20,000 to some confidential human source. [1:54:34] That's why we know that Jack Smith knew it was unconstitutional. [1:54:38] Seeked toll records from members. [1:54:40] But since the litigation risk was low, and because members would never find out about the subpoena until years later, they charged ahead and violated the Constitution. [1:54:50] The Trump Justice Department has changed DOJ policy to require prosecutors to tell judges if NDOs relate to members of the separate and equal branch of government, the Congress. [1:55:03] And to top it all off, the Trump Justice Department opened an investigation into the conspiracy behind the Russia collusion hoax. [1:55:10] The Justice Department has put common sense ahead of politics. [1:55:14] They sued to keep boys out of girls' sports. [1:55:16] They secured deals with universities to stop race-based admissions and anti-Semitic practices. [1:55:20] And after discovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi, has established a new national fraud division. [1:55:30] In fact, I met with Colin McDonald, who will head that division last week. [1:55:33] I think he's going to do a great job. [1:55:35] There's a lot of work to be done in that area, but I want to thank the Attorney General for her great work in the first year on the job, and I want to thank you for being here. [1:55:45] With that, I would yield to the ranking member for an opening statement. [1:55:48] Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Attorney General Bondi. [1:55:53] You've got the best lawyer's job in America because your mission is justice, and your clients are the American people. [1:56:00] But to promote justice for the people, you've got to listen to the victims, like the women seated behind you today. [1:56:07] Those are just some of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's global sex trafficking ring who are demanding that the truth be told and are demanding accountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them. [1:56:22] You still haven't met with these survivors. [1:56:25] So with their permission, let me introduce to you the survivors and late survivors family members who are present today. [1:56:31] There's Theresa Helm. [1:56:33] There's Jess Michaels. [1:56:35] Laura Bloom McGee. [1:56:37] Danny Bensky. [1:56:38] Liz Stein. [1:56:40] Marina Lacerda. [1:56:41] Sky and Amanda Roberts, who are the family of the late Virginia Giuffre. [1:56:45] Charlene Richard and Lisa Phillips. [1:56:49] Now you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General. [1:56:54] Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, [1:57:01] as Attorney General, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims. [1:57:07] That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. [1:57:12] You're running a massive Epstein cover up right out of the Department of Justice. [1:57:18] You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over six million documents, photographs and videos in Epstein files. [1:57:25] But you've turned over only three million. [1:57:28] You say you're not turning over the other three million because they're somehow duplicative. [1:57:33] But we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there. [1:57:37] And you also took down the Department of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. [1:57:43] So it's clearly not all duplicative. [1:57:45] But even if it were, why not release it? [1:57:48] Just release all the duplicative stuff. [1:57:50] In the half you did produce, you redacted the names of abusers, enablers, accomplices and co-conspirators, [1:57:59] apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. [1:58:07] Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims' names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. [1:58:15] Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not. [1:58:19] Many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends. [1:58:25] But you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. [1:58:35] So you ignored the law, and even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000 victims raped, abused and trafficked. [1:58:55] This performance screams cover-up. Convicted sex trafficker and groomer, Ghislaine Maxwell, opened the gates of hell to Virginia Giuffre and hundreds of other victims, as Virginia recorded in her remarkable book, Nobody's Girl. [1:59:10] But when Maxwell was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress, you and Todd Blanche quickly moved her from a higher security prison to a minimum security camp in Texas, [1:59:22] where she's enjoyed five-star treatment, including catered meals, private gym time, and access to a therapy puppy. [1:59:32] All because Todd Blanche, who's utterly failed to investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators, spent nine hours with Maxwell [1:59:46] and satisfied himself that she would have nothing untoward to say about Donald Trump, which is your only real interest in the matter, based on institutional performance. [1:59:57] But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators is what you do best. [2:00:02] When the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutal killing in Minneapolis of Renee Good, a poet and 37-year-old mother of three, by Trump's masked paramilitary ICE agents, you shut it down. [2:00:15] You claim you're investigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Preddy, an ICU nurse at the VA. [2:00:22] But how can we trust the administration when the president and Kristi Noem called Preddy a domestic terrorist and Stephen Miller called him a would-be assassin? [2:00:31] Not only do you refuse to share evidence with the state and local investigators and prosecutors in Minnesota, you have blocked their access to the crime scene and the evidence. [2:00:41] How are you seeking justice for Marimar Martinez, the Montessori school teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by a border patrol agent who bragged about it on text? [2:00:52] Or the family of Keith Porter, a father of two, shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in L.A.? [2:00:58] Or the family of Silverio Villas Gonzalez, shot and killed in Illinois minutes after he dropped his kids off at school? [2:01:04] There's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice. [2:01:09] You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. [2:01:14] How sick is that? [2:01:15] But it's even worse. [2:01:16] You've turned the People's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. [2:01:23] Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time. [2:01:27] He tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, and members of Congress like Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slotkin, Chrissy Houlihan, Jason Crowe, Chris Deluzio, and Maggie Goodlander, to name a few. [2:01:44] And you snap to it. [2:01:47] You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stooges who robotically do the president's bidding. [2:01:53] Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement. [2:02:01] And the good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, including some of your own original appointees, have refused your lawless orders. [2:02:10] Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting U.S. Attorney Manhattan, resigned rather than follow your corrupt order to quash an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams as a political favor from Donald Trump. [2:02:23] A Federalist Society member who clerked for Justice Scalia, U.S. Attorney Sassoon refused to participate in this blatantly corrupt scheme. [2:02:31] Her top assistant, Hagan Scotton, an Iraqi war vet and two-time Bronze Star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, and then Judge Kavanaugh, promptly resigned too, writing to your office, quote, [2:02:43] quote, I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me. [2:02:53] You and the president nominated Eric Siebert, a 15-year career prosecutor, to be your U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. [2:03:00] But after five months of investigating Letitia James and James Comey, he found no evidence to justify criminal charges. [2:03:10] So you forced him out. [2:03:13] You replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mar-a-Lago documents case, who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications. [2:03:22] And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corrupt appointment was blatantly unlawful and threw out Halligan's indictments entirely. [2:03:31] And grand juries of American citizens have repeatedly rejected your vendettas and baseless indictments brought by the hacks left at DOJ now, [2:03:39] with two different grand juries in Virginia voting down indictments against Letitia James in a single week. [2:03:44] And just yesterday, another grand jury shut down your vendetta factory by rejecting indictments against the six members of Congress who had spoken out to remind all service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. [2:03:59] You tried to get a grand jury to indict six members of Congress who were veterans of our armed forces on charges of seditious conspiracy simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. [2:04:11] I hope you will heed the wisdom and the constitutional patriotism of those grand jurors and not try it again by doubling down on that humiliation. [2:04:20] As your best lawyers are sacked for having participated in the January six case or just flee for the exits. [2:04:26] Now your new lawyers keep lying in court in dozens of cases. [2:04:29] They've been excoriated for lying to federal judges. [2:04:32] Chief Judge Bose Berg right here in D.C. suggested your Department of Justice perpetrated a fraud on the court. [2:04:39] Other judges found your statements to be, quote, inexplicably misleading, patently incredible, totally inconsistent and so disingenuous that the court is [2:04:51] left with little confidence that the government can be trusted to tell the truth about anything. [2:04:57] Now, as ranking ranking member, I asked the chairman to add a few extra rounds of questions today because we each have five hours of questions, not five minutes. [2:05:07] But we're stuck with five minutes. [2:05:09] That's clearly insufficient to give voice to America's victims and survivors and to demand answers about all the corruption and cover ups that we see at DOJ right now. [2:05:18] We've got just one round, so we ask you politely but firmly, Madam Attorney General. [2:05:23] Please do not waste one second of our precious time by evading questions, by changing the subject or engaging in personal attacks against members of Congress. [2:05:35] We saw your performance in the Senate and we're not going to accept that. [2:05:38] This isn't a game. [2:05:39] In the Senate, you brought something with you called a burn book, a binder of smears to attack members personally for doing the people's work of oversight. [2:05:48] Please set the burn book aside and answer our questions. [2:05:51] And when you hear us reclaim our time, that means it's time for you to stop speaking. [2:05:56] We only have five minutes. [2:05:57] So when we reclaim our time, that means you stop. [2:06:00] And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock and let you go on his time. [2:06:05] The quality of justice in America depends on the character of our government. [2:06:10] Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice back from the brink. [2:06:14] The survivors seated behind you and the American people watching everywhere deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. [2:06:21] I yield back, Mr. Chair. [2:06:22] Without objection, all of the opening statements will be included in the record. [2:06:25] We will now introduce today's witness. [2:06:27] The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi has served as the Attorney General of the United States since February 5th, 2025. [2:06:32] She previously served in the Office of the White House Counsel, two terms as the Florida Attorney General, [2:06:37] and spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor. [2:06:40] We welcome our witness and thank her for appearing today. [2:06:42] We will begin by swearing you in. [2:06:44] Would you please rise and raise your right hand? [2:06:47] Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and beliefs so help you God? [2:06:58] Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. [2:07:01] Thank you. You can be seated. [2:07:02] And please know that your written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. [2:07:06] Accordingly, we ask that you summarize your testimony. [2:07:10] Madam Attorney General, you may begin. [2:07:12] Thank you. [2:07:14] Thank you, Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Raskin, and distinguished members of this committee. [2:07:21] Thank you for hosting me here today. [2:07:23] I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer your questions, highlight the work of our department, and discuss the most important topic of all, keeping the American people safe. [2:07:34] A little over a year ago, I was sworn into office as the 87th Attorney General of the United States. [2:07:39] I came into office with the goal of refocusing the Department of Justice on its core mission after years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization. [2:07:50] The Department of Justice's core mission is to fight violent crime, protect the American people, and defend the rule of law above all else. [2:08:02] While our work is never done, we have made tremendous progress to make America safe again. [2:08:08] In 2025, we saw the lowest murder rate in 125 years. [2:08:15] That's nothing short of historic. [2:08:18] If you compare 25 to 24, here's what you'll find. [2:08:23] The murder rate is down 21 percent. [2:08:26] Robbery down 23 percent. [2:08:28] Carjacking down 43 percent. [2:08:30] Gun assault down 22 percent. [2:08:33] Ag assault, burglary could go on and on. [2:08:36] Crime is declining. [2:08:38] This did not happen by accident. [2:08:41] The numbers tell an important, yet straightforward story. [2:08:45] President Trump has given us the resources, the support, and the leadership to protect the American people. [2:08:54] President Trump's policies have saved lives. [2:08:59] I cannot think of a policy outcome more important than protecting the lives of American citizens. [2:09:05] Can you? [2:09:06] This trend has been especially clear in Washington, D.C., and in Memphis. [2:09:11] These are two iconic American cities that spent years in the grip of horrific, violent crime. [2:09:19] The Department of Justice surged law enforcement resources, and the results came quickly. [2:09:26] Crime plummeted in both cities. [2:09:29] And I want to make one point loud and clear. [2:09:33] We achieved those results by working with Democratic mayors. [2:09:38] Public safety does not have a party registration. [2:09:43] When your constituents call 911, they don't ask for political views of the responding officer. [2:09:50] They ask for help. [2:09:52] I have federal agents in each and every one of your districts. [2:09:57] They're here to help, and I am here to help. [2:10:00] Many cities and states have worked with us and taken advantage of our federal support. [2:10:07] Some have not. [2:10:09] Meanwhile, a few elected officials have declared that they are, quote, at war with the federal government, [2:10:14] and encouraged widespread obstruction of law enforcement. [2:10:18] This has resulted in avoidable clashes on the streets, as you've all seen. [2:10:25] We've seen rioters storming a Christian church. [2:10:28] Citizens and law enforcement officers have both been endangered by reckless rhetoric. [2:10:35] We have made dozens of arrests in and around Minneapolis so far, and many of them could have been avoided by simple compliance with federal law. [2:10:47] Of course, our efforts reach beyond our urban centers. [2:10:53] We are striking crucial blows against terrorist organizations such as MS-13, TDA, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Antifa. [2:11:03] And as we sit here, I think you've seen the news this morning. [2:11:08] The news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. [2:11:15] That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America. [2:11:23] As we seek to dismantle these drug trafficking networks that poison Americans, [2:11:28] In 2025, our DEA agents seized more than 47 million fentanyl pills and more than 9,800 total kilos of fentanyl. [2:11:44] That represents 369 million potentially deadly doses that can kill Americans. [2:11:55] Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for President Trump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. [2:12:02] This administration has been sued 627 times. [2:12:06] We've fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. [2:12:16] America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. [2:12:28] It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process. [2:12:36] In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court. [2:12:47] Their emergency docket and even more to come. [2:12:52] We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping FASAC prosecutions, [2:12:58] exposing the Arctic Frost scandal via congressional disclosure. [2:13:03] Thank you, Chairman. [2:13:05] And restoring one tier of justice in this country. [2:13:08] To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress's law. [2:13:24] We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims. [2:13:40] And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it. [2:13:48] All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves. [2:13:55] I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. [2:14:03] I'm a career prosecutor, and despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. [2:14:15] I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster. [2:14:26] If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you. [2:14:38] I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated. [2:14:48] The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law. [2:14:56] In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1,700 child predators, a 10% increase from 2024. [2:15:05] We also located 2,700 victims of child exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. [2:15:19] 3.8 million. [2:15:22] So please, if you have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI. [2:15:30] Today, I look forward to discussing further our shared obligation to protect the American people, uphold the rule of law, and keep this nation safe. [2:15:43] Thank you. [2:15:44] Thank you, Madam Attorney General. [2:15:46] We now proceed under the five-minute rule. [2:15:48] The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for five minutes. [2:15:51] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [2:15:53] Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible over the years in the Epstein debacle. [2:16:05] Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civil rights, between criminal, between so-called white-collar crime. [2:16:16] And doing so, as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the president are under attack and our ICE agents and FBI and others are under attack when they try to enforce law. [2:16:28] I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden, support, or even stand with those lawbreakers that sit on this and other daises here in Congress. [2:16:44] My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the chairman of that subcommittee. [2:16:52] I'll forgo that today because one of my other jobs is the creation and maintenance of Article III judges. [2:17:01] And I work with the Chief Justice on that, and we're trying to expand the court. [2:17:05] But currently, there are only 677 district court judges. [2:17:09] They have very full dockets as well. [2:17:13] But you create a tremendous amount of judges, particularly immigration judges. [2:17:20] You do so in order to save the court that, but adjudicate, as is requirement, each of those people who claim a right to be here in the United States. [2:17:33] And that has been going on under Republican and Democratic administrations for years. [2:17:38] What's unique about the Trump administration this time is that you and President Trump have managed to reduce the backlog of people seeking that for the first time in decades. [2:17:51] You are getting ahead of that tremendous backlog that caused, for better or worse, the release of millions of people with little pieces of paper saying, [2:18:01] come back later when we call you and often to no avail when you call. [2:18:06] So I want to congratulate you on that because it's an accomplishment you might not take credit for and the other side would never give you credit for. [2:18:14] But I hope you can continue to do that and do more. [2:18:19] And I say so for a reason, because much of this hearing will be about Minneapolis and other places in which the backlog of criminal aliens, including in my home state of California, [2:18:34] people who have hurt other people, who people who have victimized their communities, is extensive. [2:18:40] And although the overall number through adjudication may be going on because of places like my home state, California, [2:18:48] you're unable to apprehend people that my sheriffs want apprehended. [2:18:53] They desperately want to cooperate and they're prohibited by law. [2:18:57] It is this committee's opinion on this side of the aisle that, in fact, you should be given the ability to demand that that participation [2:19:07] and that the release of a known criminal not be considered to be acceptable just because a state or city has declared itself a sanctuary. [2:19:17] I want you to opine on just one thing that I think has been misunderstood. [2:19:23] As I said earlier, you create and maintain those judges that adjudicate these cases. [2:19:31] You also support so many that, in fact, have to make decisions as judges. [2:19:42] Knowing that this limitation of so few Article III judges are there, please educate those who seem to miss the point that Article I judges, [2:19:53] including bankruptcy judges, including immigration judges, including lots of people with the title appropriately judged, [2:20:00] do in fact issue documents that look like act like and are normally accepted as warrants, as subpoenas, as demands for state officials to stand aside [2:20:14] and allow the production of either an individual or documents. [2:20:19] Because I think people are missing the point that these ICE retainers and detainers and so on, they act like they're nothing. [2:20:26] When in fact, in the ordinary course, Madam General, you do in fact have Article I judges constantly putting those out and they are respected normally. [2:20:37] Thank you, Congressman, for talking about all the great judges. [2:20:47] And if I could add one thing to that, we are always recruiting and looking for judges. [2:20:53] So please reach out to our office for these judges who are handling all these very important matters. [2:21:00] We've even added some JAG officers as immigration judges. [2:21:06] Thank you. [2:21:07] And so we're continuing to do that, but we're always seeking qualified lawyers as well to be part of that. [2:21:13] And thank you for highlighting that, Congressman. [2:21:16] Thank you. I yield back. [2:21:17] The gentleman yields back. The gentlelady from Washington is recognized. [2:21:19] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Attorney General Bondi, right here. [2:21:23] We are joined in this room by some of the thousands of survivors from Jeffrey Epstein's horrific sex trafficking ring. [2:21:32] They have shown such incredible courage in speaking out, in demanding accountability to bring the predators and pedophiles to justice. [2:21:42] The Epstein Files Transparency Act required your Department of Justice to disclose the perpetrators connected with Epstein's criminal activities and to redact the information of survivors to protect their identities. [2:21:57] Let me show you what actually happened. [2:22:00] First, in violation of the law, your department has shown a pattern of redacting the names of powerful predators. [2:22:09] Here, behind me, is one example of an email from Epstein to a man whose name was redacted. [2:22:16] The email reads, quote, [2:22:19] Where are you? Are you okay? I loved the torture video. [2:22:25] Only after members of Congress demanded that we see the unredacted files did the world learn the name of this individual, [2:22:34] Sultan Almed bin Sulayam, the chairman and CEO of a company that had financial ties to President Trump's business and personal ties to Trump's advisor, Steve Bannon. [2:22:48] Second, the survivors were not similarly protected, also in violation of the law. [2:22:54] Here is another email titled Epstein Victim List. [2:22:59] We have blurred the names of the survivors for their protection, but your Department of Justice initially released this list of 32 survivors' names with only one name redacted, [2:23:12] along with numerous files that disclosed not only the names, the emails, and the addresses of survivors, but also nude photographs, [2:23:21] and even the identities of Jane Doe's, who had been protected for decades until your department released their names. [2:23:30] Survivors are now telling us that their families are finding out for the first time that they were trafficked by Epstein. [2:23:38] In their words, quote, this release does not provide closure. [2:23:43] It feels like a deliberate attempt to intimidate survivors, punish those who came forward, [2:23:49] and reinforce the same culture of secrecy that allowed Epstein's crimes to continue for decades. [2:23:56] To the survivors in the room, if you are willing, please stand. [2:24:02] And if you are willing, please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice. [2:24:15] Please know for the record that every single survivor has raised their hand. [2:24:23] Attorney General Bondi, you apologize to the survivors in your opening statement for what they went through at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. [2:24:33] Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information? [2:24:52] Congresswoman, you set before Merrick Garland set in this chair twice. [2:25:04] Attorney General Bondi. [2:25:05] No, can I finish my answer? [2:25:07] No, I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked you a specific question that I would like you to answer, [2:25:15] which is will you turn to the survivors? [2:25:18] This is not about anybody that came before you. [2:25:21] It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you [2:25:32] and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize for what your Department of Justice has done. [2:25:39] Members get to ask the questions. [2:25:40] The witness gets to answer in the way they want to answer. [2:25:42] The Attorney General can respond. [2:25:43] That's not accurate, Mr. Chairman. [2:25:45] Because she doesn't like the answer. [2:25:46] It is my time. [2:25:47] So, Mr. Chairman. [2:25:49] Why didn't she ask Merrick Garland this twice when he sat in my chair? [2:25:53] I am reclaiming my time, and when I reclaim my time, it is my time. [2:25:59] I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics. [2:26:02] The time belongs to the gentlelady. [2:26:04] The gentlelady has 17 seconds. [2:26:06] Thank you. [2:26:07] You're not going to answer this question, so let me just say this. [2:26:10] Chairman, I'll direct it to you. [2:26:11] What a massive cover-up. [2:26:12] No, I'm answering a question, Chairman. [2:26:13] Mr. Chairman, will you restore her time? [2:26:14] The witness is interrupted. [2:26:15] I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman. [2:26:17] She's doing theatrics. [2:26:18] The gentlelady from Washington controls the time. [2:26:22] The gentlelady has 17 seconds. [2:26:24] You can proceed with your final 17 seconds. [2:26:26] Thank you. [2:26:27] What a massive cover-up this has been and continues to be. [2:26:30] Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein files [2:26:33] the center of his political campaign [2:26:35] because he thought it would benefit him. [2:26:37] Then you got into office, Attorney General, [2:26:39] claimed to have a client list. [2:26:40] Regular order. [2:26:41] Only to then say that there was no list. [2:26:44] Your deputy, Todd Blanche, met alone [2:26:47] with Elaine Maxwell and transferred her [2:26:50] to a minimum security prison. [2:26:53] And now you continue the cover-up. [2:26:55] The time of the gentlelady has expired. [2:26:56] And I wish that you would turn around to the survivors [2:26:59] who are standing right behind you [2:27:01] and on a human level. [2:27:02] Apologize for that. [2:27:03] Chairman, I'm what you have done. [2:27:06] The time of the gentlelady has expired. [2:27:08] You have no time to yield back. [2:27:10] We appreciate that. [2:27:11] We appreciate the thought. [2:27:13] And I would argue the central issue in the last election, [2:27:16] the presidential election, was securing the border. [2:27:19] The gentleman from Arizona, who knows something about securing the border, [2:27:21] is up for five minutes. [2:27:23] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [2:27:24] And thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for being here today. [2:27:27] In 2022, Lafarge, which is a French cement company, [2:27:31] pled guilty in U.S. federal court to participating in a criminal conspiracy with ISIS. [2:27:37] That conspiracy contributed to the deaths of U.S. service members fighting in Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve. [2:27:46] As part of the plea agreement, Lafarge was required to pay more than $775 million to DOJ's asset forfeiture fund. [2:27:54] In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission [2:27:59] submitted by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. [2:28:05] The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved. [2:28:11] My question for you on this particular issue is if you're willing to work to ensure those families that their petitions will be reviewed and brought to a resolution. [2:28:21] Congressman, we are aware of that, and we're committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. [2:28:29] Thank you for that question. [2:28:30] Yeah, I appreciate your answer. [2:28:31] And now let's go to something that is also pressing that I've been working on for years, [2:28:36] and this is the FISA Section 702 and Arctic Frost. [2:28:40] In January 2025, you testified before the U.S. Senate and agreed with Senator DeLi that, quote, [2:28:46] any time an American citizen's private communications are intercepted or stored, whether through incidental collection or otherwise, [2:28:52] those communications should not be searched without some showing of probable cause, close quote. [2:28:57] Do you still hold that view today, I assume? [2:28:59] Yes. [2:29:01] And during the most recent FISA reauthorization, I offered an amendment to establish a clear warrant requirement for searches of Americans' data [2:29:11] while preserving every publicly cited operational exception, including emergencies, defensive queries, cybersecurity threats. [2:29:19] And my intent was to ensure the Department of Justice could continue to keep Americans safe while also ending warrantless searches of U.S. persons' data. [2:29:27] Are there any additional circumstances or exceptions that you believe must be included to ensure DOJ can continue to operate effectively while still protecting American citizens' data and privacy? [2:29:39] Yeah, Congressman, we are committed to working with Congress to uncover weaponization and other misconduct by Jack Smith, by others, Arctic Frost, [2:29:50] everything that happened under the past administration. [2:29:54] And we are committed to working with you on that. [2:29:58] And we are working with Chairman Jordan, with the House Intel, with all of my fellow Cabinet members on resolving that issue. [2:30:10] Well, thank you. [2:30:11] And I'm glad you brought up Arctic Frost, because Section 702 was used in the Arctic Frost investigation. [2:30:17] It was. [2:30:18] And information derived was used by Special Counsel Jack Smith. [2:30:23] And my question has always been, and no one's been able to answer this, is what was the legal predicate for using a foreign intelligence authority in the Arctic Frost investigation? [2:30:33] Have you been able to ascertain any legal predicate? [2:30:38] Congressman, what I can tell you today is that has been referred to my office. [2:30:44] I can't discuss anything regarding that, because it is very active and ongoing. [2:30:49] And you probably can't answer this one either, but I really want to know if Section 702 queries related to that matter involved members of Congress, which we know at some level it did, congressional staff, which we know at some level did. [2:31:02] We've heard that journalists or other U.S. persons not suspected of acting as foreign agents were also caught up in that. [2:31:09] Can you answer that question and say whether queries did cover all those groups I just identified? [2:31:15] It is a very active pending investigation within my office. [2:31:21] However, I believe many members of Congress have stated that their phones were. [2:31:28] The monstrous crimes of others have. [2:31:30] Hickle theft. [2:31:31] We know that Jack Smith knew it was unconstitutional. [2:31:34] Seeked toll records from members, but since the litigation risk was low and because members would never find out about the subpoena until years later, they charged ahead and violated the Constitution. [2:31:46] The Trump Justice Department has changed DOJ policy to require prosecutors to tell judges if NDOs relate to members of the separate and equal branch of government, the Congress. [2:31:59] And to top it all off, the Trump Justice Department opened an investigation into the conspiracy behind the Russia collusion hoax. [2:32:06] The Justice Department has put common sense ahead of politics. [2:32:10] They sued to keep boys out of girls' sports. [2:32:12] They secured deals with universities to stop race-based admissions and anti-Semitic practices. [2:32:16] And after discovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi, has established a new national fraud division. [2:32:25] In fact, I met with Colin McDonald, who will head that division last week. [2:32:29] I think he's going to do a great job. [2:32:30] There's a lot of work to be done in that area, but I want to thank the Attorney General for her great work in the first year on the job, and I want to thank you for being here. [2:32:41] With that, I would yield to the ranking member for an opening statement. [2:32:44] Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Attorney General Bondi. [2:32:48] You've got the best lawyer's job in America because your mission is justice and your clients are the American people. [2:32:56] But to promote justice for the people, you've got to listen to the victims, like the women seated behind you today. [2:33:04] Those are just some of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's global sex trafficking ring who are demanding that the truth be told [2:33:12] and are demanding accountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them. [2:33:17] You still haven't met with these survivors. [2:33:20] So with their permission, let me introduce to you the survivors and late survivors family members who are present today. [2:33:28] There's Teresa Helm. [2:33:29] There's Jess Michaels. [2:33:31] Laura Bloom McGee. [2:33:33] Danny Bensky. [2:33:35] Liz Stein. [2:33:36] Marina Lacerda. [2:33:38] Skye and Amanda Roberts, who are the family of the late Virginia Giuffre. [2:33:43] Charlene Richard and Lisa Phillips. [2:33:46] Now you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General. [2:33:50] Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, [2:33:58] as Attorney General, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims. [2:34:04] That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. [2:34:09] You're running a massive Epstein cover up right out of the Department of Justice. [2:34:14] You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over six million documents, photographs and videos in Epstein files. [2:34:22] But you've turned over only three million. [2:34:24] You say you're not turning over the other three million because they're somehow duplicative. [2:34:29] But we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there. [2:34:34] And you also took down the Department of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. [2:34:40] So it's clearly not all duplicative. [2:34:42] But even if it were, why not release it? [2:34:45] Just release all the duplicative stuff. [2:34:47] In the half you did produce, you redacted the names of abusers, enablers, accomplices and co-conspirators, [2:34:55] apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. [2:35:02] Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims' names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. [2:35:12] Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not. [2:35:16] Many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends. [2:35:21] But you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. [2:35:32] So you ignored the law, and even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000 victims raped, abused and trafficked. [2:35:51] This performance screams cover-up. [2:35:55] Convicted sex trafficker and groomer, Ghislaine Maxwell, opened the gates of hell to Virginia Giuffre and hundreds of other victims, as Virginia recorded in her remarkable book, Nobody's Girl. [2:36:06] But when Maxwell was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress, you and Todd Blanche quickly moved her from a higher security prison to a minimum security camp in Texas, where she's enjoyed five-star treatment, including catered meals, private gym time and access to a therapy puppy. [2:36:27] All because Todd Blanche, who's utterly failed to investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators spent nine hours with Maxwell and satisfied himself that she would have nothing untoward to say about Donald Trump, which is your only real interest in the matter, based on institutional performance. [2:36:52] But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators is what you do best. [2:36:57] When the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutal killing in Minneapolis of Renee Good, a poet and 37-year-old mother of three by Trump's masked paramilitary ICE agents, you shut it down. [2:37:10] You claim you're investigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Preddy, an ICU nurse at the VA. [2:37:17] But how can we trust the administration when the president and Kristi Noem called Preddy a domestic terrorist and Stephen Miller called him a would-be assassin? [2:37:27] Not only do you refuse to share evidence with the state and local investigators and prosecutors in Minnesota, you have blocked their access to the crime scene and the evidence. [2:37:36] How are you seeking justice for Marimar Martinez, the Montessori school teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent who bragged about it on text? [2:37:48] Or the family of Keith Porter, a father of two, shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in L.A.? [2:37:54] Or the family of Silverio Villas Gonzalez, shot and killed in Illinois minutes after he dropped his kids off at school? [2:38:01] There's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice. [2:38:05] You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. [2:38:10] How sick is that? [2:38:12] But it's even worse. [2:38:14] You've turned the People's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. [2:38:19] Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time. [2:38:23] He tells you to go after James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, and members of Congress like Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slotkin, Chrissy Houlihan, Jason Crowe, Chris Deluzio, and Maggie Goodlander, to name a few, and you snap to it. [2:38:42] You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stooges who robotically do the president's bidding. [2:38:49] Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement. [2:38:57] And the good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, including some of your own original appointees, have refused your lawless orders. [2:39:06] Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting U.S. Attorney Manhattan, resigned rather than follow your corrupt order to quash an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams as a political favor from Donald Trump. [2:39:19] A Federalist Society member who clerked for Justice Scalia, U.S. Attorney Sassoon refused to participate in this blatantly corrupt scheme. [2:39:28] Her top assistant, Hagan Scotton, an Iraqi war vet and two-time Bronze Star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, and then Judge Kavanaugh, promptly resigned too, writing to your office, quote, [2:39:40] I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me. [2:39:50] You and the president nominated Eric Siebert, a 15-year career prosecutor, to be your U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. [2:39:57] But after five months of investigating Letitia James and James Comey, he found no evidence to justify criminal charges. [2:40:07] So you forced him out. You replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mar-a-Lago documents case, who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications. [2:40:18] And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corrupt appointment was blatantly unlawful and threw out Halligan's indictments entirely. [2:40:27] And grand juries of American citizens have repeatedly rejected your vendettas and baseless indictments brought by the hacks left at DOJ. [2:40:35] Now with two different grand juries in Virginia voting down indictments against Letitia James in a single week. [2:40:40] And just yesterday, another grand jury shut down your vendetta factory by rejecting indictments against the six members of Congress who had spoken out to remind all service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. [2:40:55] You tried to get a grand jury to indict six members of Congress who were veterans of our armed forces on charges of seditious conspiracy simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. [2:41:07] I hope you will heed the wisdom and the constitutional patriotism of those grand jurors and not try it again by doubling down on that humiliation. [2:41:15] As your best lawyers are sacked for having participated in the January six case or just flee for the exits. [2:41:22] Now your new lawyers keep lying in court in dozens of cases. [2:41:26] They've been excoriated for lying to federal judges. [2:41:29] Chief Judge Bose Berg right here in D.C. suggested your Department of Justice perpetrated a fraud on the court. [2:41:36] Other judges found your statements to be, quote, inexplicably misleading, patently incredible, totally inconsistent and so disingenuous that the court is left with little confidence that the government can be trusted to tell the truth about anything. [2:41:52] Now, as ranking ranking member, I asked the chairman to add a few extra rounds of questions today because we each have five hours of questions, not five minutes, but we're stuck with five minutes. [2:42:04] That's clearly insufficient to give voice to America's victims and survivors and to demand answers about all the corruption and cover ups that we see at D.O.J. right now. [2:42:14] We've got just one round, so we ask you politely but firmly, Madam Attorney General, please do not waste one second of our precious time by evading questions, by changing the subject or engaging in personal attacks against members of Congress. [2:42:31] We saw your performance in the Senate and we're not going to accept that. [2:42:35] This isn't a game. [2:42:36] In the Senate, you brought something with you called a burn book, a binder of smears to attack members personally for doing the people's work of oversight. [2:42:45] Please set the burn book aside and answer our questions. [2:42:48] And when you hear us reclaim our time, that means it's time for you to stop speaking. [2:42:53] We only have five minutes. [2:42:54] So when we reclaim our time, that means you stop. [2:42:57] And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock and let you go on his time. [2:43:02] The quality of justice in America depends on the character of our government. [2:43:07] Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice back from the brink. [2:43:11] The survivors seated behind you and the American people watching everywhere deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. [2:43:18] I yield back, Mr. Chair. [2:43:19] Without objection, all of the opening statements will be included in the record. [2:43:22] We will now introduce today's witness. [2:43:23] The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi has served as the Attorney General of the United States since February 5th, 2025. [2:43:29] She previously served in the Office of the White House Counsel, two terms as the Florida Attorney General, and spent more than 18 years as a prosecutor. [2:43:36] We welcome our witness and thank her for appearing today. [2:43:39] We will begin by swearing you in. [2:43:40] Would you please rise and raise your right hand? [2:43:43] Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and beliefs? [2:43:53] So help you God. [2:43:54] I do. [2:43:55] Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. [2:43:57] Thank you. [2:43:58] You can be seated. [2:43:59] Please know that your written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. [2:44:02] Accordingly, we ask that you summarize your testimony. [2:44:06] Madam Attorney General, you may begin. [2:44:08] Thank you. [2:44:10] Thank you, Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Raskin, and distinguished members of this committee. [2:44:17] Thank you for hosting me here today. [2:44:19] I'm grateful for the opportunity to answer your questions, highlight the work of our department, and discuss the most important topic of all, keeping the American people safe. [2:44:30] A little over a year ago, I was sworn into office as the 87th Attorney General of the United States. [2:44:36] I came into office with the goal of refocusing the Department of Justice on its core mission after years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization. [2:44:47] The Department of Justice's core mission is to fight violent crime, protect the American people, and defend the rule of law above all else. [2:44:59] While our work is never done, we have made tremendous progress to make America safe again. [2:45:05] In 2025, we saw the lowest murder rate in 125 years. [2:45:12] That's nothing short of historic. [2:45:14] If you compare 25 to 24, here's what you'll find. [2:45:20] The murder rate is down 21 percent. [2:45:22] Robbery down 23 percent. [2:45:24] Carjacking down 43 percent. [2:45:26] Gun assault down 22 percent. [2:45:29] Ag assault, burglary, could go on and on. [2:45:32] Crime is declining. [2:45:34] This did not happen by accident. [2:45:37] The numbers tell an important, yet straightforward story. [2:45:41] President Trump has given us the resources, the support, and the leadership to protect the American people. [2:45:50] President Trump's policies have saved lives. [2:45:53] I cannot think of a policy outcome more important than protecting the lives of American citizens. [2:46:01] Can you? [2:46:02] This trend has been especially clear in Washington, D.C., and in Memphis. [2:46:08] These are two iconic American cities that spent years in the grip of horrific violent crime. [2:46:16] The Department of Justice surged law enforcement resources, and the results came quickly. [2:46:22] Crime plummeted in both cities. [2:46:25] And I want to make one point loud and clear. [2:46:29] We achieved those results by working with Democratic mayors. [2:46:35] Public safety does not have a party registration. [2:46:40] When your constituents call 911, they don't ask for political views of the responding officer. [2:46:46] They ask for help. [2:46:49] I have federal agents in each and every one of your districts. [2:46:54] They are here to help, and I am here to help. [2:46:56] Many cities and states have worked with us and taken advantage of our federal support. [2:47:03] Some have not. [2:47:05] Meanwhile, a few elected officials have declared that they are, quote, at war with the federal government [2:47:10] and encouraged widespread obstruction of law enforcement. [2:47:15] This has resulted in avoidable clashes on the streets, as you've all seen. [2:47:21] We've seen rioters storming a Christian church. [2:47:24] Citizens and law enforcement officers have both been endangered by reckless rhetoric. [2:47:32] We have made dozens of arrests in and around Minneapolis so far, [2:47:37] and many of them could have been avoided by simple compliance with federal law. [2:47:43] Of course, our efforts reach beyond our urban centers. [2:47:49] We are striking crucial blows against terrorist organizations such as MS-13, TDA, the Sinaloa Cartel, and Antifa. [2:47:59] And as we sit here, I think you've seen the news this morning. [2:48:04] The news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. [2:48:11] That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America. [2:48:20] As we seek to dismantle these drug trafficking networks that poison Americans, [2:48:25] in 2025, our DEA agents seized more than 47 million fentanyl pills [2:48:33] and more than 9,800 total kilos of fentanyl. [2:48:41] That represents 369 million potentially deadly doses that can kill Americans. [2:48:51] Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for President Trump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. [2:48:58] This administration has been sued 627 times. [2:49:03] We've fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. [2:49:12] America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. [2:49:22] It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process. [2:49:33] In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court, [2:49:44] their emergency docket and even more to come. [2:49:47] We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping FASAC prosecutions, [2:49:55] exposing the Arctic Frost scandal via congressional disclosure, thank you, Chairman, [2:50:01] and restoring one tier of justice in this country. [2:50:05] To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages [2:50:17] to comply with Congress's law. [2:50:20] We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, [2:50:28] while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims. [2:50:38] And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it. [2:50:45] All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves. [2:50:51] I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. [2:51:00] I'm a career prosecutor, and despite what the ranking member said, [2:51:04] I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. [2:51:12] I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim, has been through, especially as a result of that monster. [2:51:21] If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, [2:51:30] the FBI is waiting to hear from you. [2:51:34] I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated. [2:51:44] The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law. [2:51:52] In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1,700 child predators, a 10% increase from 2024. [2:52:01] We also located 2,700 victims of child exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. [2:52:16] 3.8 million, so please, if you have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI. [2:52:26] Today, I look forward to discussing further our shared obligation to protect the American people, [2:52:35] uphold the rule of law, and keep this nation safe. [2:52:40] Thank you. [2:52:41] Thank you, Madam Attorney General. [2:52:43] We now proceed under the five-minute rule. The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for five minutes. [2:52:47] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [2:52:49] Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible over the years in the Epstein debacle. [2:53:01] Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civil rights, between criminal, between so-called white-collar crime. [2:53:12] And doing so, as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the president are under attack and our ICE agents and FBI and others are under attack when they try to enforce law. [2:53:24] I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden, support, or even stand with those lawbreakers that sit on this and other daises here in Congress. [2:53:38] My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the chairman of that subcommittee. [2:53:52] is the creation and maintenance. [2:53:54] .