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The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday released a transcript from its closed-door interview with former Attorney General Pam Bondi that showed her refusing to answer numerous questions and repeatedly directing lawmakers to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche regarding decisions tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files.
The transcript from the nearly four-hour session was released following an arrangement with committee Chairman James Comer.
During the interview, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon repeatedly intervened to stop questioning about conversations Bondi may have had with Donald Trump or White House officials, arguing that those discussions were protected by executive privilege.
“I’m not going to answer any questions — any conversations that I have had with the president of the United States, whether we had them or didn’t have them, or the substance,” Bondi said when pressed about discussions involving President Trump.
Bondi also declined to answer questions about alleged Epstein co-conspirators and repeatedly emphasized Blanche’s role in overseeing matters tied to the Epstein files.
“You’d have to ask Deputy Attorney General, now-Acting Attorney General Blanche and Director Patel,” Bondi said at one point.
“AG Blanche was managing the entire investigation,” she later stated.
Democrats noted outside the interview room that Bondi mentioned Blanche dozens of times during questioning. Bondi later objected to suggestions that she was blaming him.
The transcript also showed Bondi saying she did not know how aware President Trump may have been of Epstein’s crimes and that she did not support pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell.
Bondi additionally acknowledged that the Justice Department was unaware of a massive volume of Epstein-related material when it issued a July memo last year stating Epstein did not kill himself and that no additional records would be released.
“Clearly, they did not know there were 3 million-plus — approximately 3 million [point] 2 pages of documents at that time,” she said.
Lawmakers also questioned Bondi about documents that were reportedly removed and later reposted online, as well as allegations from a woman who claimed Trump assaulted her as a minor. Bondi said she had no additional information on those matters.
