Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing calls to testify before Congress about Jeffrey Epstein after The Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi had told President Donald Trump in May that he was in the files, a claim the administration has dismissed as “fake news.” Trump earlier sued the newspaper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, over a previous story alleging that the president had sent a birthday card to Epstein.
On Wednesday, the Journal reported that Bondi informed Trump that his name was among “many” other names in the Epstein files, which the Trump administration declined to release earlier this month. Trump has since called the files a “hoax” perpetrated by political rivals, and has called some his supporters “weaklings” for following the scandal.
In the wake of the latest revelation, lawmakers are demanding that Bondi testify on the matter.
“Bondi knew,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a video on X. He called out FBI Director Kash Patel as well, saying he also “knew.”
“Over the last several months, the Justice Department dispatched hundreds, if not thousands of agents to comb through the Epstein files and flag any mention of Donald Trump,” Schiff said. “We need to bring Bondi and Patel into the Judiciary Committee to testify about this.”
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called out Bondi at a press conference on Wednesday.
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“Time and again, Pam Bondi and President Trump have lied to the American people,” Durbin said. “They are destroying Americans’ trust in our justice system.”
A joint statement from Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche brushed off the latest development. “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution,” it read in part. “As part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,” the statement said.
White House spokesman Steven Cheung called the reports “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”
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As congressional Democrats continue to press the Trump administration, Bradley Edwards, an attorney who has represented over 200 of Epstein’s victims, told MSNBC he had a “quick solution.”
Speaking with MSNBC, Edwards called said lawmakers could issue a subpoena for the so-called “birthday book,” which the Wall Street Journal alleged contains a letter from Trump to Epstein. Edwards said a call to the executors of Epstein’s estate would yield results.
“If someone simply called them on the phone and said, ‘Give us the book,’ they would probably give you the book,” he said.
“If they didn’t just voluntarily turn over the book, out of fear of reprisal, Congress could issue a subpoena to their attorneys,” Edwards explained. “You would immediately have the answers.”
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