Former Attorney General Pam Bondi told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee on Friday that the Justice Department made “redaction errors” in its release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by NBC News.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
Bondi planned to tell the panel during her closed-door interview on Capitol Hill that she was assured by the team that reviewed the documents that “the only materials that were withheld were either non-responsive, privileged, or duplicative,” according to the opening statement.
“To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our diligent and good faith effort to collect materials ensured that all potentially responsive documents that could be reasonably located would see the light of day,” she planned to say in her opening statement.
Bondi, whom Trump fired last month, said she didn’t lead every aspect of the review of the Epstein files and delegated oversight of the process to then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who now serves as acting attorney general.
“There were redaction errors,” her opening remarks said. “But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency. Our stance has always been that the Department stands ready to review any potential evidence of criminal activity related to Epstein and his associates and would pursue appropriate investigative or prosecutorial action wherever the facts and law warrant.”
Bondi and Trump’s Justice Department had faced backlash over the release of the documents related to the late convicted sex offender, especially from survivors of his abuse. The documents were heavily redacted, but exposed survivors’ names after assurances that they would be protected. Democratic lawmakers have also said that the DOJ redacted the names of men who may have participated in the abuse.
The firestorm around the Epstein files release began after Bondi said during a February 2025 appearance on Fox News that she had an Epstein client list on her desk, a claim that never came to fruition.
In July 2025, the Justice Department and the FBI released an unsigned memo saying there was no evidence of such a client list or that Epstein had blackmailed prominent people, and concluding the financier had died by suicide — igniting further backlash and calls for transparency, including among some staunch Trump supporters.
The uproar led Congress to pass a bill last year compelling the DOJ to release its records related to Epstein. But the final release was delayed, which Blanche at the time blamed in part on the sheer number of files and the sensitivity around redactions.
Before the Oversight panel’s interview with Bondi began on Friday, survivors stood outside the hearing room and asked Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., if the committee would seek answers about why survivors’ identities were made public, but not that of perpetrators.
“I hope so. Those are questions we’re going to ask,” Comer said. “We want justice for the survivors.”
Comer told reporters ahead of the deposition that the government has “failed” Epstein survivors and he is taking this investigation “seriously.”
He said among the questions he planned to ask Bondi were, “What documents remain? Why haven’t they been turned over? We’re going to try to determine whether or not there can be more documents.”