WASHINGTON, United States: Former US attorney general Pam Bondi on Friday defended the Justice Department´s handling of its files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, while acknowledging “redaction errors” in a release that critics say shielded key information while identifying alleged victims.
Bondi was giving evidence to the House Oversight Committee in a transcribed interview rather than a sworn, videotaped deposition, frustrating Democrats and survivors who accuse President Donald Trump´s administration of withholding the full record of the disgraced financier´s sex trafficking case.
According to prepared remarks obtained by multiple US media outlets, Bondi said the Justice Department had made an “unprecedented commitment to transparency” under her leadership and produced nearly three million pages of material, including videos and images.
“To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Bondi said in the statement.
But she also acknowledged flaws in the release.
“There were redaction errors,” Bondi said, referring to the process of blacking out legally sensitive or private personal information. “But since day one of this process, this department has been committed to accountability and transparency.”
The comments came as Democrats, Epstein survivors and some Republicans accuse the Trump administration of covering up the full record of the case, despite the Justice Department´s insistence that it has released everything it is legally obliged to make public.
Bondi became a central figure in the Epstein saga after saying last year that the late sex offender´s so-called client list was on her desk for review. The Justice Department and FBI later said there was no such list and no plans to release further information.
In her prepared statement, Bondi said she did not personally lead every part of the review and had delegated oversight to then-deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, now acting attorney general.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the Justice Department to remove names and identifying information of victims before releasing records, but barred officials from shielding powerful figures mentioned in the files merely because of embarrassment. —AFP
