US NEWS LIVE | Trump Faces Renewed Impeachment Pressure Amid Rising Washington Tensions And Debate

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]of abusers, enablers, accompllices, and co-conspirators, apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not. Many had kept their torment private, even from family. and friends, but you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see.

[00:00:41]So, you ignored the law. And even with over a 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. This performance screams cover up. Convicted sex trafficker and groomer Gla Maxwell opened the gates of hell to Virginia Drew Fray and hundreds of other victims. as Virginia recorded in her remarkable book, Nobody's Girl.

[00:01:15]But when Maxwell was subpoenaed to come testify before Congress, you and Todd Blanch 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. All because Todd Blanch, who's utterly failed to investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirator, spent n investigate the monstrous crimes of Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators spent nine hours with Maxwell and satisfied himself that she would have nothing unourred to say about Donald Trump, which is your only real interest in the matter based on institutional performance. But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators is what you do best when the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutal killing in Minneapolis of Renee Good, a poet and 37year-old mother of three by Trump's masked paramilitary ICE agents. You shut it down. You claim you're investigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Prey, an ICU nurse at the VA. But how can we trust the administration when the president and Christy Gnome call Freddy a domestic terrorist and Steven Miller called him a would-be assassin? 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. How are you seeking justice for Marimar Martinez, the Monasuri school teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by a border patrol agent who bragged about it on text. Or the family of Keith Porter, a father of two shot and killed by an offduty ICE agent in LA. Or the family of Sylio Vieas Gonzalez shot and killed in Illinois minutes after he dropped his kids off at school. There's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice. You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. How sick is that? But it's even worse. You've turned the People's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and you deliver every time. He tells you to go after James Comey, Leticia 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 Hulahan, Jason Crowe, Chris Duzio, and Maggie Goodlander to name a few, and you snap to it. You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stooges who robotically do the president's bidding. Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement. The good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, including some of your own original employees, have refused your lawless orders. Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting US 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. A Federalist Society member who clerked for Justice Scalia, US Attorney has soon refused to participate in this blatantly corrupt scheme. Her top assistant, Hagen Scottton, an Iraqi war vet and two-time Bronze Star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts.

[00:04:44]And then Judge Kavanaaugh, promptly resigned, too, writing to your office, 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." You and the president nominated Eric Sebert, a 15-year career prosecutor, to be your US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

[00:05:09]But after five months of investigating Leticia James and James Comey, he found no evidence to justify criminal charges.

[00:05:16]So you forced him out. You replaced him with Lindseay Halagan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mara Lago documents case, who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications. And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corrupt appointment was blatantly unlawful and threw out Halligan's indictments entirely. And grand juries of American citizens have repeatedly rejected your vendettas and baseless indictments brought by the hacks left at DOJ. Now with two different grand juries in Virginia voting down indictments against Leticia James in a single week. 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. You tried to get a grand jury to indict six members of Congress who were veterans of our armed forces on charges of sedicious conspiracy simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. 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 as your best lawyers are sacked for having participated in the January 6 case or just flee for the exits now your new lawyers keep lying in court in dozens of cases they've been excoriated for lying to federal judges.

[00:06:38]Chief Judge Boseberg right here in DC suggested your department of justice perpetrated a fraud on the court. 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. Now, as ranking ch ranking member, uh I ask 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. 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.

[00:07:24]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. We saw your performance in the Senate and we're not going to accept that. This isn't a game.

[00:07:45]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.

[00:07:54]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. We only have 5 minutes, so when we reclaim our time, that means you stop. And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock and let you go on his time. The quality of justice in America depends on the character of our government. Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice back from the brink. The survivors seated behind you and the American people watching everywhere deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. I yield back, Mr. Chair.

[00:08:27]>> Without objection, all of the opening statements will be included in the record. We will now introduce today's witness. The Honorable Pamela J. Bondi has served as the attorney general of the United States since February 5th, 2025. 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. We welcome our witness and thank her for appearing today. We will begin by swearing you in. Would you please rise and raise your right hand?

[00:08:52]>> Yes.

[00:08:56]>> 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 belief? So, help you God.

[00:09:03]>> I do.

[00:09:04]>> Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. Thank you.

[00:09:06]You can be seated and please know that your written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirely entirety. Accordingly, we ask that you summarize uh your testimony. Madame Attorney General, you may begin.

[00:09:18]>> Thank you.

[00:09:20]Thank you, Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Rascin, and distinguished members of this committee. Thank you for hosting me here today. 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. A little over a year ago, I was sworn into office as 87th Attorney General of the United States. I came into office with a goal of refocusing the Department of Justice on its core mission after years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.

[00:09:56]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. While our work is never done, we have made tremendous progress to make America safe again. In 2025, we saw the lowest murder rate in 125 years. That's nothing short of historic.

[00:10:24]If you compare 25 to 24, here's what you'll find. The murder rate is down 21%. Robbery down 23%. Carjacking down 43%.

[00:10:36]Gun assault down 22%.

[00:10:38]A assault, burglary could go on and on.

[00:10:41]Crime is declining.

[00:10:44]This did not happen by accident. The numbers tell an important yet straightforward story. President Trump has given us the resources, the support, and the leadership to protect the American people. President Trump's policies have saved lives.

[00:11:04]I cannot think of a policy outcome more important than protecting the lives of American citizens. Can you? This trend has been especially clear in Washington DC and in Memphis. These are two iconic American cities that spent years in the grip of horrific violent crime. The Department of Justice surged law enforcement resources and the results came quickly. Crime plummeted in both cities. And I want to make one point loud and clear. We achieved those results by working with Democratic mayors.

[00:11:45]Public safety does not have a party registration. When your constituents call 911, they don't ask for political views of the responding officer. They ask for help. I have federal agents in each and every one of your districts. They're here to help. And I am here to help. Many cities and states have worked with us and taken advantage of our federal support. Some have not. Meanwhile, a few elected officials have declared that they are quote at war with the federal government and encouraged widespread obstruction of law enforcement.

[00:12:24]This has resulted in avoidable clashes on the streets. As you've all seen, we've seen rioters storming a Christian church.

[00:12:34]Citizens and law enforcement officers have both been endangered by reckless rhetoric. 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. Of course, our efforts reach beyond our urban centers. We are striking crucial blows against terrorist organizations such as MS-13, TDA, the Sinaloa cartel, and Antifa. And as we sit here, I think you've seen the news this morning. The news is reporting that cartel drones are being shot down by our military. That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America 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.

[00:13:50]That represents 369 million potentially deadly doses that can kill Americans.

[00:14:01]Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for President Trump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. This administration has been sued 627 times.

[00:14:12]We fought through a non-stop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration.

[00:14:32]It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process.

[00:14:42]In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the US Supreme Court, their emergency docket, and even more to come. We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping Face Act prosecutions, exposing the Arctic frost scandal via congressional disclosure.

[00:15:09]Thank you, chairman. and restoring one tier of justice in this country.

[00:15:15]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. We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation to protect victims.

[00:15:46]And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it. All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves.

[00:16:03]I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today.

[00:16:08]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. I am deeply sorry for what any victim any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster.

[00:16:31]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.

[00:16:45]I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.

[00:16:54]The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law. In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1,700 child predators, a 10% increase from 2024.

[00:17:11]We also located 2700 victims of child exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts.

[00:17:26]3.8 million.

[00:17:28]So please, if you have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI.

[00:17:36]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. Thank you.

[00:17:50]>> Uh thank you, Madam Attorney General.

[00:17:52]The chair now we now presented the five-minute rule. The chair recognizes gentleman from California for five minutes.

[00:17:56]>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madame General, uh, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible over the years in the Epstein debacle.

[00:18:10]Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket uh between civil rights, between criminal, 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 the law. I personally want to apologize for those who would in in em in em in em in em in em in em in em in em in em in em in em in embolden support or even uh stand with those lawb breakakers that sit on this and other deases here in congress.

[00:18:49]My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the uh the chairman of that subcommittee. I'll forgo that today because one of my other jobs is uh the creation and maintenance of article 3 judges and I work with the chief justice on that and we're trying to expand the court 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. you do so in order to save the court that but adjudicate as is requirement uh each of those people who claim a right to be here in the United States and that has been going on under Republican and Democratic administrations for years. 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. 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 come back later when we call you and often to no avail when you call. 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, but I hope you can continue to do that and do more. And I say so for a reason because much of this uh hearing will be about Minneapolis and other places in which the backlog of criminal aliens, including in my home state of California, people who have hurt other people who people who have victimized their communities is extensive.

[00:20:46]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. They desperately want to cooperate and they're prohibited by law. It is this committee's opinion on this side of the aisle that in fact you should be given the ability to demand that uh that participation and that the release of a known criminal not be uh considered to be acceptable just because a state or city has declared itself a sanctuary. I want you to opine on just one thing that I think has been misunderstood. As I said earlier, you create and maintain that those judges that adjudicate these cases. You also support uh you also support so many that in fact uh have to make decisions as judges knowing that this limitation of so few article 3 judges are there. Please educate those who seem to miss the point that Article One judges, including bankruptcy judges, including immigration judges, including lots of people with the title appropriately judge 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 and allow the production of either an individual or documents because I think people are missing the point that these ICE retainers and detainers and so on, they act like they're nothing when in fact in the ordinary course uh madam general you do in fact have article one judges constantly putting those out and they are respected normally.

[00:22:45]>> Yes.

[00:22:47]Thank you, Congressman, for um for talking about all the the great judges.

[00:22:52]And if I could um add one thing to that, we are always recruiting and looking for judges. So, please reach out to our office for these judges who are handling all these very important matters. We're we're we've even added some JAG um JAG officers as immigration judges. Thank you. And so we're continuing to do that, but we're always seeking qualified lawyers as well to be part of that. And thank thank you for highlighting that, Congressman.

[00:23:21]>> Thank you. I yield back.

[00:23:22]>> Gentleman yields back. The gentle lady from Washington's recognized.

[00:23:25]>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Attorney General Bondi right here. Uh we are joined in this room by some of the thousands of survivors from Jeffrey Epstein's horrific sex trafficking ring.

[00:23:37]They have shown such incredible courage in speaking out in demanding accountability to bring the predators and pedophiles to justice. 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. Let me show you what actually happened. First, in violation of the law, your department has shown a pattern of redacting the names of powerful predators. Here behind me is one example of an email from Epstein to a man whose name was redacted. The email reads, quote, "Where are you? Are you okay? I loved the torture video."

[00:24:31]Only after members of Congress demanded that we see the unredacted files did the world learn the name of this individual, Sultan Alhmed bin Sulam, the chairman and CEO of a company that had financial ties to President Trump's business and personal ties to Trump's adviser Steve Bannon.

[00:24:53]Second, the survivors were not similarly protected, also in violation of the law.

[00:24:59]Here is another email titled Epstein victim list. 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 along with numerous files that disclose 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.

[00:25:36]Survivors are now telling us that their families are finding out for the first time that they were trafficked by Epstein. In their words, quote, "This release does not provide closure. 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." To the survivors in the room, if you are willing, please stand.

[00:26:12]And if you are willing, please raise your hands. If you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice, please know for the record that every single survivor has raised their hand.

[00:26:29]Attorney General Bondi, you apologize to the survivors in your opening statement for what they went through at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein.

[00:26:40]Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the un absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information?

[00:27:03]Congresswoman, you sat before Mer Merritt Garland sat in this chair twice. Attorney General Bond can finish my answer. No, I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked you attorney specific question. Attorney General to answer, which is will you turn to the survivors? This is not about anybody that came before you. 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 is.

[00:27:44]>> Members members get to ask the questions. The witness gets to answer in the way they want to answer the attorney general.

[00:27:49]>> That's not accurate, Mr. Chairman.

[00:27:51]>> Because she doesn't like the answer. So, um >> Mr. Chairman, I have asked and she asked Meritt Garland this time.

[00:27:59]>> I am reclaiming my time and when I will my time, the gentle lady get in the gutter for her theatrics.

[00:28:07]>> The time belongs to the time belongs to the gentle lady. The gentle lady has 17 seconds.

[00:28:11]>> Thank you. You're not going to answer this question, so let me just I'll direct it to you.

[00:28:16]>> What a massive answer.

[00:28:19]>> Will you restore her time? The witness is interrupting the gutter with this woman. She's doing theatric.

[00:28:24]>> Let me have my >> gentle lady. The gentle lady from Washington controls the time. The gentle lady has 17 seconds. You can you can uh proceed with your final 17 seconds.

[00:28:32]>> What a massive cover up this has been and continues to be. Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein files the center of his political campaign because he thought it would benefit him. Then you got into office attorney general, claimed to have a client list, only then say that there was no list. Your deputy Todd Blanch met alone Maxwell. Time of the gentle lady has expired to a minimum security prison and now you continue the conversation that you would turn around to the survivors who are standing right behind you and on a human level now recognizes the chair for what you have done.

[00:29:12]>> Time is time of the gentle expire. The gentle ladies you have no time to yield back. We appreciate that. We appreciate the thought. Um the um and I would argue the central issue in the last election, the presidential election was securing the border. The gentleman from Arizona who knows something about securing the border is up for 5 minutes.

[00:29:29]>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for being here today. In in 2022, Lafarge, which is a French cement company, plead guilty in US federal court to participating in a criminal conspiracy with ISIS. That conspiracy contributed to the deaths of US service members fighting in Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve. As part of the plea agreement, Lafarge was required to pay more than $775 million to DOJ's asset forfeiture fund. In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission submitted uh by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved. My question for you on this particular issue is if you're willing to work to ensure those families that their petitions will be remove, excuse me, reviewed and brought to a resolution.

[00:30:27]>> Congressman, we are aware of that and we're committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. Thank you for that question.

[00:30:35]>> Yeah, I appreciate your answer. 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 and Arctic Frost. In January 2025, you testified before the US Senate and agreed with Senator Lee that quote, "Anytime an American citizen's private communications are intercepted or stored, whether through incidental collection, otherwise those communications should not be searched without some showing of probable cause."

[00:31:01]Close quote. You you still have hold that view today, I assume.

[00:31:06]Yes.

[00:31:07]>> And um during the most recent FISA reauthorization, I offered an amendment to establish a clear warrant requirement for searches of Americans data while preserving every publicly cited operational exception, including emergencies, defensive queries, cyber security threats, and my intent was to ensure the Department of Justice could continue to keep Americans safe while also ending warrantless searches of US persons data. Are there any additional circumstances or exceptions that you believe must be included to ensure DOJ can continue to operate effectively while still uh protecting American citizens data and privacy?

[00:31:46]>> Yeah, Congressman, we are committed to working with Congress to uncover weaponization and other misconduct by Jacksmith, by others, Arctic Frost, everything that happened under the past administration. And um we are committed to working with you on that and we are working with Chairman Jordan, with the House Intel, with all of our u my fellow cabinet members on resolving that issue.

[00:32:15]>> Well, thank you. And I'm glad you brought up Arctic Frost because section 702 was used in the Arctic Frost investigation.

[00:32:22]>> It was >> and uh information derived was used by special counsel Jack Smith. Um, 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? Have you been able to ascertain any legal predicate, >> Congressman? What I can tell you today is that has been referred to my office.

[00:32:50]I can't discuss anything regarding that because it is very active and ongoing.

[00:32:56]And you probably can't answer this one either, but I I really want to know if section 702 queries related to that matter involved members of Congress, which we know and some level it did. Uh congressional staff, which we know at some level did. We've heard that journalists or other US persons not suspecting of acting as foreign agents were also caught up in that. Can you answer that question and say whether queries uh did cover all those those groups I just identified?

[00:33:22]It is a very active pending investigation within my office. However, I believe many members of Congress have stated that their phones were um were part of Arctic Frost. We are well aware of that and we are taking this very seriously and this is a very active investigation. And I would keep going and say if any member of of the Democrat party, if any of them, if that had happened to them, we would take that just as serious as we do, and they should be jumping up and down, screaming, supporting you and what you want to do because this should be a bipartisan issue.

[00:34:04]>> Well, I hope it is a bipartisan issue.

[00:34:06]Um and uh you know I'll just leave with these last couple of questions which I I'm sure fall into the same investigation privilege but that's this how many such queries were actually conducted overall this is outside artic frost in the prior year by by the FBI or other intelligence community and particularly we really need to know what were what were this legal standards applied did they use probable cause did they use reasonable articulable suspicion or did they have no individualized susp suspicion and just we're gathering up information uh and and that's that's beyond the the investigation with regarding Arctic frost. I don't expect you to have that information today, but if you can uh help get that information so we can understand the extensive nature of this continued misuse of 702, it would be very particularly helpful.

[00:34:56]>> And it was extensive. Yes, Congressman, thank you.

[00:34:59]>> Time of the gentleman has expired.

[00:35:00]>> I have a UC, Mr. Chairman >> and that is the gentle lady from Texas.

[00:35:05]>> I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record El Paso airspace reopened after FAA quickly rescends 10day flights restriction. This was published by the Texas Tribune on February 11th, 2026.

[00:35:18]And it says it was because of an impass with the DoD over the use of un military aircraft and not triggered by Mexican cartel drones.

[00:35:27]>> Without objection. Uh point of order, Mr. Chairman. Uh I didn't hear back about the second round of questions. I assume that's not happening. I just want to be able to assure uh the members certainly on my side if not both sides.

[00:35:38]>> That's not a point of >> No, that that that every member will get five minutes with the uh witness. Will there be five minutes for each?

[00:35:46]>> Yeah, you get five minutes. Yeah, >> with the witness. Okay, very good.

[00:35:49]>> Yeah. Okay. And are you up next?

[00:35:52]Gentleman from New York is recognized.

[00:35:56]>> Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by acknowledging the survivors of Jeffrey Epste's horrific abuse who are in the room with us today. I want to thank all of you for your bravery and speaking out. And I want to say that you and the other survivors of these heinous crimes deserve better from this Department of Justice. 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. 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.

[00:36:31]Even more troubling, the DOJ has failed to bring any of these perpetrators to justice. Instead, it has engaged in a relentless pursuit of Donald Trump's perceived enemies. I want to focus on just one example. The attorney general of my home state of New York, Tish James. This DOJ has been hellbent on securing an indictment against Miss James for something, anything, simply because she held Donald Trump's companies accountable for years of financial fraud. And indeed, the department manufactured an investigation against her for alleged quote mortgage fraud. But the US attorney leading the investigation, Eric Sbert, a Trump appointee, refused to bring charges against Miss James because there was simply no evidence. Unfortunately, a prosecutor who refuses to do Trump's bidding has no place in this DOJ. So, Mr. Sbert was forced out. Trump could not contain his fury. Fury that he expressed to you in a social media post addressed to you by name. I'm sure you've seen it. Quote, I fired him and there is a great case he wrote to you about Mr. Sbert. Then we moved down. We can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing. Justice must be served now. And obviously you followed that order. Lindseay Halligan, Trump's former defense lawyer who had never p prosecuted the case in her life was installed to replace Mr. Sbert and it was clear that part of her mandate was to go after Miss James. Halligan immediately saw an indictment which the court dismissed because Halligan was illegally put into the role. But your department was undeterred and not once but twice it tried to indict Attorney General James in separate courts. Both grand juries rejected you and refused to indict her. It is practically unheard of for a grand jury to refuse an indictment. In 2016, it happened in just six cases out of over 150,000 offenses.

[00:38:35]And you had it happen twice in the same week in two different courts. That must have been humiliating. And now there are reports you were continuing to investigate her. The amount of resources that have gone into targeting Attorney General James, months of investigations, multiple failed indictments is astounding. Since your own prosecutors told you that there is not enough evidence to support a conviction, it's clear that you are going after her simply because she held President Trump accountable and he wants to punish her.

[00:39:05]And she is just one name on a long list of Trump political enemies that DOJ is reportedly targeting. From Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserve to James Comey, numerous Democratic members of Congress, John Brennan, Jack Smith, Democratic officials in Minnesota, Chris Krebs, Mile Taylor, and more. And those are just the ones we know about. In contrast to these politically motivated investigations grasping at something they can charge their enemies with, we now have concrete evidence of disgusting criminality revealed in the Epstein files. So I have just so I really have just one question for you. How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? How many perpetrators are you even investigating?

[00:39:54]First, >> you showed it. You I I find it.

[00:39:57]>> How many have you >> Excuse me. I'm gonna answer the question.

[00:40:01]>> I answer my question.

[00:40:02]>> No, I'm gonna answer the question the way I want to answer the question. Your theatrics are ridiculous. The way I asked it, >> Chairman Jordan, I'm not going to get in the gutter with these people, but I'm going to answer the question.

[00:40:11]>> How many of you invited? Again, the time belong >> included notes of statements that Donald Trump made about his prior relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Now, there is no reason for this to be hidden from the American people. There is no privilege.

[00:40:28]There is no attorney client privilege.

[00:40:30]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 Gileain Maxwell.

[00:40:41]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?

[00:40:54]>> You're about as good of a lawyer today as you were when you tried to impeach President Trump in 2016. Have you apologized for that in 2019?

[00:41:02]>> So are will you will you unredact this?

[00:41:04]Will you lead counsel on that?

[00:41:06]Privileged.

[00:41:06]>> I'm asking you, will you unredact this?

[00:41:08]>> Privileged. privileged of course I look forward to discussing this more now these are obviously improper redactions and >> let me stop I'm I'm talking I'm not privileged quiet >> don't yell at me if they're not chairman will you stop the clock this is on your time it's not on Mr. Even though you used your improper reduction, >> you'll like my answer to continue to protect belongs to the member. Be happy to release them.

[00:41:36]>> We'll stop the clock. We'll stop the clock. Time belongs to the member. Go ahead.

[00:41:40]Even though you used improper redactions to protect Donald Trump and other predators associ 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. Now, what does that mean in practice? Let's look at Abraham Gonzalez who on September 20th, 2023 was arrested by Border Patrol for illegally entering the United States.

[00:42:09]And of course, the Biden administration released him into the country. 5 months later, February 26, 2024, Mr. Gonzalez is charged with assault. Two weeks later, March 11th, 2024, he's charged with felony motor vehicle theft. Stole a car. And on March 20th, 2024, nine days later, he's arrested by the Denver police and placed in the Denver Justice Center.

[00:42:36]6 days uh 6 days later, March 22nd, 2024, ICE sends a detainer notice to the Denver Justice Center saying this. 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? And remember, a detainer is a final order of removal from a court where this individual or this individual's committed some removable offense. But on February 28th, 2025, Abraham Gonzalez is released to the streets. In fact, we can put that up. I think you can see this released. We got the form from the det uh Denver Justice Center.

[00:43:17]What kind of inmate was Mr. Gonzalez for those 345 days that he was in the Denver Justice Center? We have that too.

[00:43:26]Violent to the staff, keep separate. So this guy was so bad you had to keep him away from other inmates. He had already assaulted some staff member.

[00:43:37]But Denver released this guy to the streets and let instead of turning him over to ICE agents who would have come to the jail and arrested him there. And of course, we all know what happens when the officers did apprehend Mr. Gonzalez out on the street. He assaulted one of the officers.

[00:43:54]This is what happens when you have a sanctuary jurisdiction. Right now in Minnesota, there are 1,360 detainer notices for violent offenders. Governor Walls and others have released 470 criminal illegal aliens back to the streets. In New York State, it's 7,000.

[00:44:12]Nationwide, it's over 17,000 that we know of where a detainer was filed.

[00:44:19]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. 17,864 times. 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.

[00:44:44]and frankly helping create the environment that results in the tragic deaths like we saw with Miss Good and Mr. Prey. Few years ago, Governor Sarah Huckabe Sanders said this in response to the State of the Union address. She said, "The divide in America today is normal versus crazy." And it's true because it's crazy not to have a border, which is what we had under the previous administration. It's crazy to abolish ICE. 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.

[00:45:21]The mindset, the mindset that says it's okay to release these guys is the same leftwing mindset that thinks it's okay to weaponize government against your political opponents. And that is exactly what we had in the previous Justice Department. The Biden Harris Department of Justice called parents domestic terrorist. The Biden Harris Justice Department used FBI SWAT teams to arrest pro-life advocates. The Biden Harris DOJ targeted traditional Catholics. The Biden Harris DOJ pressured social media companies to censor Americans. 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. To further this effort, they sought the phone records of over a dozen Republican members of Congress. Even the Democrats said this was wrong. They got bank records for scores of White House officials. They even paid at least one confidential human source $20,000 for information on President Trump. And of course, while doing all this, they couldn't tell us who planted the pipe bombs, who leaked the DOB's opinion, and who put cocaine in the White House. But thank goodness, the American people saw through it all.

[00:46:32]Americans were tired of being targeted for their beliefs, tired of the lawfare, tired of the rampid crime throughout this country. And that's why they overwhelmingly elected President Trump.

[00:46:40]And what a difference a year makes. What a difference a year makes. 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. The Trump Justice Department has restored the rule of law. Murders are down nationwide by 20%. In DC, violent crime is down by 28%.

[00:47:00]The federal surge in DC resulted in 8,000 arrests, the seizure of 800 illegal guns, and the recovery of 16 missing kids.

[00:47:09]Trump Justice Department apprehended a suspect in the pipe bomb investigation.

[00:47:12]And they've arrested six of the FBI's 10 or top 10 most wanted fugitives in just one year. Of course, they arrested narot terrorist Nicholas Maduro and they seize a record number of drugs flowing into this country.

[00:47:26]Trump Justice Department put an end to targeting Americans for their beliefs.

[00:47:30]Attorney General Bondi rescended.

[00:47:32]Attorney General Garland's anti-parent memorandum.

[00:47:37]Department of Justice ended the practices of using the Face Act to target pro-life Americans. 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, Attorney General Bondi disbanded the foreign influence task force that was pressuring social media companies to censor Americans.

[00:47:57]And the Trump Justice Department has ended lawfare. Under Attorney General Bondi, along with Director Patel, they've worked to expose the political nature of Artic Frost and the Jacksmith investigations.

[00:48:09]They've turned over hundred 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. That's why we know that Jack Smith knew it was unconstitutional seek to 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.

[00:48:35]The Trump Justice Department has changed DOJ policy to require prosecutors to tell judges if NDOS's relate to members of the separate and equal branch of government, the Congress. And to top it all off, the Trump Justice Department opened an investigation into the conspiracy behind the Russia collusion hoax.

[00:48:55]The Justice Department has put common sense ahead of politics. They sued to keep boys out of girls sports. They secured deals with universities to stop race-based admissions and anti-Semitic practices. Then after discovering rampant fraud in Minnesota, the Justice Department under the leadership of Attorney General Bondi has established a new national fraud division. In fact, I met with Colin McDonald who will head that division last week. I think he's going to do a great job. Uh 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. With that, I would yield to the ranking member for an opening statement.

[00:49:33]Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Attorney General Bondi. You've got the best lawyer's job in America because your mission is justice and your clients are the American people. But to promote justice for the people, you've got to listen to the victims, like the women seated behind you today. 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. You still haven't met with these survivors. So, with their permission, let me introduce to you the survivors and late survivors family members who are present today.

[00:50:16]There's Terresa Helm. There's Jess Michaels. Laura Bloom McGee, Danny Benki, Liz Stein, Marina Lera, Sky and Amanda Roberts, who are the family of the late Virginia Dufrey, Charlene Rashard, and Lisa Phillips. Now, you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General. Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, as attorney general, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims. That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. You're running a massive Epstein cover up right out of the Department of Justice. You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over 6 million documents, photographs, and videos in the Epstein files, but you've turned over only 3 million. You say you're not turning over the other 3 million because they're somehow duplicative, but we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there. And you also took down the Department of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. So, it's clearly not all duplicative. But even if it were, why not release it? Just release all the duplicative stuff. In the half you did produce, you redacted the names of abusers, enablers, accompllices, and co-conspirators, apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not. Many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends. But you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. So you ignored the law and even with over a 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. This performance screams cover up.

[00:52:42]Convicted sex trafficker and groomer Gla