Trump’s former attorney general admits to ‘redaction errors’ before facing questions about Epstein files

Donald Trump’s former attorney general Pam Bondi is appearing before the U.S. House oversight committee today — behind closed doors and not under oath — for a hearing about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Bondi, who arrived Friday morning on Capitol Hill for her interview, was defiant in previous public testimony when confronted by lawmakers about the investigation into the late sex offender.

Behind the doors of the closed hearing, Bondi told the committee in an opening statement obtained by media that her Department of Justice was committed to accountability and transparency and admitted that “there were redaction errors” in the Epstein files.

However, under questioning, ranking Democrat Robert Garcia said Bondi shifted responsibility for those redaction errors and questions about investigations to her former deputy Todd Blanche, who is now acting Attorney General.

“She continues to push all of the investigation and the blame on acting AG Todd Blanche. She said, and I quote, ‘Acting AG Blanche was managing the entire investigation’ end quote,” Garcia told reporters during a break in proceedings.

Bondi later refuted Garcia, writing on the social media platform X, “NOT TRUE. “I praised Acting AG Blanche’s management of this Herculean task.”

Asked whenter Blanche might also appear before the commmittee, the Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said it wasn’t a question she was prepared to answer Friday.

Roughly a half dozen Epstein survivors stood outside the hearing and tried to speak with Bondi as she made her way down the hall, but they were blocked by a throng of Capitol Police.

“It’s just like another degrading feeling of like we don’t matter,” said Canadian Epstein survivor Sharlene Rochard, who says she was pushed back as Bondi walked by. “She’s coming through and she couldn’t even turn around to look at us.”

However, Rochard did confront the committee chair.

“There are more than a dozen leads in the files,” Rochard said to Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican. “Can you ensure that they would please be brought under oath?”

Comer replied that lawmakers are “bringing people in that have never been brought in before … We brought in Epstein’s top assistant, we brought [an] Epstein lawyer, and we brought an Epstein accountant.

“They were never interviewed by the people who were supposedly investigating Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell,” he said, referring to the late sex offender’s girlfriend, now in prison following conviction on sex trafficking charges.

Rochard said earlier she and the other survivors hope Bondi is asked whether any investigative leads were closed without notifying victims, and whether leads involving powerful or politically connected individuals were not followed because of conflicts of interest or improper influence.

Bondi was originally subpoenaed in March to appear before the committee, but Trump dismissed her from her role as Attorney General in April. The Department of Justice argued that because she was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general she did not have to appear before the committee.

In the end, the Republican-led committee opted to have Bondi appear, instead, for a closed-door “transcribed interview.”

That has not gone over well with some House Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Melanie Stansbury from New Mexico, where Epstein was accused of abusing women at his Zorro ranch. 

“Let’s be clear — we subpoenaed Bondi for a deposition, and she should testify under oath. Why isn’t she? Well, because the Republican Chairman decided a closed-door interview was enough,” Stansbury wrote on X. “But we know it’s not. Bondi must testify under oath, on camera, for the public to see.”

Meaningful action and transparency

While the Epstein victims won’t be allowed inside the hearing, they will speak before it begins. 

They will also have dozens of volumes of the Epstein files on hand, sent in from the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, maintained by the non-profit Institute for Primary Facts. 

The public exhibit, which displayed bound copies of the released Epstein files in New York City, is now going on tour, with its first stop in Washington, where it has sent the volumes with potential investigative leads flagged inside.

The volumes are there “so that people can realize how many leads there actually are,” Rochard said. “A reminder of what actually needs to be done.”

She says survivors aren’t asking for “a spectacle,” but rather, truth, accountability, meaningful action and transparency about the redaction process and investigative decisions. 

As well as “about whether all credible leads were pursued,” she said.

‘One of the hardest things I’ve ever done’

Rochard came forward last fall after seeing a familiar face on the news from her early modelling days. Lisa Phillips — a fellow Epstein survivor — was speaking out on Capitol Hill at a news conference demanding accountability and transparency from the Department of Justice.

That day Rochard called Phillips and told her she, too, had been trafficked by Epstein. 

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my whole entire life is start speaking about the parts of my life that were the most difficult,” Rochard said.

Rochard says she was introduced to Epstein as a young model and was trafficked into her 20s, but kept silent about the abuse for decades. She’s unable to go into details because she is involved in ongoing legal action to hold the people she says abused her accountable.

One day, while she was grocery shopping, a journalist sent her a photo from Epstein’s island and the weight of the memory hit her hard.

“I got a text, put my groceries in my cart. I sat down and started bawling. Like, I just, I couldn’t drive home,” she said.

Phillips says it was sad learning that Rochard had gone through the same type of abuse she had.

“I never knew with Sharlene that it had happened to her, or even to the extent, I never even knew that she had been on the island, too,” she said.

“It’s one thing to deal with the pain of what happens to you, but when you know it’s happened to somebody else, it is not easy.”

Phillips invited Rochard to come to L.A. to meet other survivors filming a public service announcement with the anti-trafficking group World Without Exploitation that would air during the Super Bowl.

WATCH | Some Epstein survivors recorded this PSA that aired during the Super Bowl:

“They were so lovely and easy,” Rochard said of the other survivors she met that day. “And I felt, like, that connection I never had before. I’ve been alone for a long time and just living with this knowledge, but I wasn’t able to really tell too many people.”

Rochard recalls breaking down the day they filmed the segment because she wasn’t used to speaking about what happened.

“The words that they wanted us to say in the PSA, they just hit me so hard.”

Since November, Rochard has drawn on the support of the women she calls her survivor sisters as they call for transparency, change and an end to human trafficking at the United Nations and the U.S. Congress. 

She’s also in contact with some Canadian advocacy groups hoping to change laws in this country to strengthen protections for victims of intimate partner violence and their children.

Survivors say DOJ still hasn’t reached out

The last time Rochard and Bondi were in close proximity was in February when Bondi refused to face the survivors standing behind her after Democratic lawmaker Pramila Jayapal asked her to apologize.

“It felt like I was a little kid again, just asking for somebody to acknowledge me, to be honest,” Rochard said, adding that it hurt that Bondi “just couldn’t turn around and say, ‘You know what, I’m sorry.’ “

In that session, the nearly dozen survivors raised their hands when asked if they were still waiting for Trump’s DOJ to contact them.

Rochard, who gave the names of the men she says abused her to her lawyer, says survivors are willing to meet with DOJ officials, but that they still haven’t been contacted by anyone there.

“I think that’s also degrading.”

Survivors, she says, have also faced accusations that they’re part of a Democratic hoax, they have received online threats and had to deal with stalkers. Still, they are undeterred.

Survivors advocate for Virginia’s Law

In addition to pushing for accountability and the full release of the Epstein files, survivors have been knocking on doors on Capitol Hill advocating for Virginia’s Law. 

The bill introduced in February was named in honour of Virginia Giuffre, one of the first women to come forward to expose Epstein, and who took her own life last April. It seeks to remove the statute of limitations on civil claims for adult victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking so they can sue their abusers.

Rochard is also working with advocacy groups and speaking out on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations about human trafficking. She is educating young people — especially in the modelling industry — about potential red flags of human trafficking operations. 

It’s been a major life shift for the mother of four who says she gains courage from her children, ages 11 to 15.

“I think about them in every single press conference, every single time I speak,” she said. “I know that they’ll see everything that I do and I want them to be proud of me.”

Before coming forward to the public, Rochard had to tell her children what happened to her. They all rallied around their mom with pride.

“Every time I do hear her speak, I just get blown away by the way she says things,” said Bella, 15.

“She has so much power behind her voice, and I just like, ‘Yeah, that’s my mom!'”