Pam Bondi prepared for her visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. She still walked into a firing squad.
The attorney general sat before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to answer questions from lawmakers about the pace of the government's releases of evidence pertaining to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Bondi's stonewalling, for months taking the form of administrative procedure and official statements, was on full display in a familiar form as she verbally sparred with House members and hurled insults at her critics.
Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin wasn't having it.
"You are running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice. You redacted the names of abusers and co-conspirators, apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do," the congressman lectured. "Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims' names."
He went on to accuse her of acting with "staggering incompetence, cold indifference and jaded cruelty".
Thomas Massie, a Republican who spearheaded the effort to force the release the Epstein files in the House, told reporters afterwards that he'd seen evidence suggesting that Kash Patel, the FBI director, lied to Congress.
Bondi came with her own ready-made quips for her critics. She was largely unable to land effective counterpoints, however, in one case, breaking off into a bizarre tangent about the economy.
Wednesday's hearing sent the administration a clear message: The Epstein issue isn't going away. If the DoJ and White House don't have anything to offer except insults, that could be a very big problem.
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