JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
How the federal government handled the Epstein files was once again questioned today on Capitol Hill. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled down on her role in managing information related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in an appearance before House lawmakers today. NPR's Ava Berger was at the Capitol, and now she's here in studio with me. Hi there.
AVA BERGER, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: Ava, what did Pam Bondi say today?
BERGER: Well, we don't know exactly. Bondi answered questions from lawmakers in a closed-door transcribed interview. That means the Republican-led House Oversight Committee will release a transcript at a later date. They've done this before with other interviews, like when they questioned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. What we do know is that in a prepared opening statement, Bondi said a lot of the same stuff we've already heard from her in public hearings. Short answer - Bondi said Todd Blanche oversaw the Epstein document review. He was the deputy attorney general at the time and took over the spot at the - the top spot at the Justice Department after Bondi left in April. Bondi also said that she stood behind her work as attorney general, saying she was, quote, "proud" of the department's record under her leadership.
SUMMERS: And lawmakers were in the room. Did you hear from them after?
BERGER: Yes. House Democrats came out midway through the hearing and told reporters they were not impressed with Bondi's responses. Here is Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost.
MAXWELL FROST: Every single one of our questions got one of three responses - one, not to my recollection, or I don't know. No. 2, talk with Todd Blanche, I don't know anything about it. And No. 3, I am not talking about Donald Trump.
BERGER: And one of the criticisms against Bondi has been that key files related to President Trump had been withheld or removed. Bondi has responded to that criticism by defending her release of the files just like she did today.
SUMMERS: Interesting - so did Bondi or her attorney say anything else to reporters?
BERGER: Bondi didn't. She went into the transcribed interview flanked by police officers, and she left without reporters even seeing her. The two attorneys representing her, both current DOJ lawyers, did very briefly answer questions. When asked about Bondi not answering questions about Trump, here's what DOJ attorney Harmeet Dhillon said.
HARMEET DHILLON: There were ground rules laid with the committee before we walked in there, and we simply wanted to stick to those - the temporal limitations, as well as subject matter limitations.
BERGER: And she said she was not going to discuss what those exact limitations were.
SUMMERS: Ava, I also heard that there were Epstein survivors there, what did you hear from them?
BERGER: Juana, they were frustrated.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
BERGER: It's been a long road without a lot of answers. One of them is Dani Bensky. She met Epstein when she was a young ballerina. She alleges he sexually abused her, threatened her and coerced her.
DANI BENSKY: Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche have derailed the lives of so many survivors. They have serious questions to answer for. So for the Epsteinth (ph) time, when do we get investigations, and who the hell are we protecting?
BERGER: And, Juana, right after that, there was this moment that I remember all of the survivors who were there - they were holding up documents they had printed out from the Epstein files. And I could see the frustration as they pointed to actual lines in the files that they felt like should have been leads in an investigation that they say never happened.
SUMMERS: That sounds really powerful, Ava. What comes next in the saga with the Epstein files?
BERGER: So we don't know if Bondi will face any future questions about how she handled the files. Remember, she is no longer attorney general. According to representative James Comer - he's the lead Republican on the committee - there will be six more interviews scheduled, one of which will be Bill Gates. And Democrats did say that they want to subpoena Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel to get more answers to these questions.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ava Berger, thanks so much.
BERGER: Thanks, Juana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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