Tuesday’s Senate hearing gave us even more proof
| Dean Obeidallah Oct 7, 2025 |
During Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Donald Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi defensively lashed out every time she was asked about the Jeffrey Epstein file and his sex ring. For example, when Sen. Dick Durbin quoted her own words about how she said in February that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now for review,” she slammed the Senator for somehow quoting her out of context.
He didn’t. In reality, during a February Fox News interview, host John Roberts asked her whether DOJ would release a “list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients…Will that really happen?” Bondi responded: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”
Another example of Bondi’s over the top defensiveness came when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse asked her about “public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women.” He added, “Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein’s safe or premises or otherwise?”
Did Bondi respond with a yes or no? Nope, she immediately attacked Whitehouse without ever answering, angrily declaring, “You know, Senator Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks, once again, trying to slander President Trump left and right, when you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants…”
But Sen. Whitehouse pressed her again, asking, “The question is, did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed Jeffrey Epstein showed them?” Her response this time was literally silence. She said nothing and just looked at Whitehouse until he commented, “You don’t know anything about that?”
Bondi’s actions are what prosecutors would call “consciousness of guilt.” I’m not suggesting she was part of Epstein’s child sex ring. Rather the guilt comes her role covering up for those involved in the sex ring—that begins of course with her boss Trump and includes many rich and powerful men.
As I wrote about months ago, questions about Bondi’s role in the Epstein cover up were sparked by the fact that she did not prosecute Epstein when she was Florida’s Attorney General from 2011 to 2019. As a reminder, after Epstein’s release from jail in 2009, Epstein returned to his lavish lifestyle and was able to “continue his abuse of minors”—a point made in a 2020 report by Trump’s own DOJ. Making this even more suspicious is that as Florida’s AG, Bondi did very publicly prosecute numerous other cases involving sexual predators who targeted children—but never Epstein.
And Trump’s own DOJ headed by Bondi told us in a July memo “that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims.” Yes, more than one thousand people were victims—presumably many when Bondi was Florida’s top law enforcement officer, yet she did nothing.
Making this cover up more challenging are the words last week of Trump’s own Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick who told us that Epstein—who he personally knew—was the “greatest blackmailer ever.” Lutnick shared the blackmail scheme, noting Epstein would offer powerful men massages from the women (and presumably children) he was trafficking. Lutnick explained, “They get a massage, that’s what his [Epstein’s] MO was. ‘Get a massage, get a massage.” He noted that “what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video.” That is when Lutnick declared, “This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people. That’s how he had money.”
On Tuesday, GOP Sen. John Kennedy actually pressed Bondi on this, reading Lutnick’s words to her and then asking is it true that Epstein was “the greatest blackmailer ever”? Bondi once again was evasive to a direct question, instead saying, “Senator, as our July memo said, we did not uncover evidence. This case has gone through three administrations, as well as former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta…”
At that point Kennedy interrupted her, “I know that, Pam! But have you interviewed Secretary Lutnick?” She responded, “No,” to which a surprised Kennedy pressed her, “Do you plan to?”
From there we saw Bondi go back to full defensive mode, saying, “If he wants to talk to the FBI or the FBI wants to talk to him” which caused Kennedy to press her further on why won’t she seek to speak to him?
The answer is clear. She is part of the cover up.
There is no doubt Epstein was blackmailing numerous powerful men. That was the very point Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips made in our discussion last month. Phillips—who was one of the courageous women who spoke at a Capitol Hill press conference in early September—explained, “Jeffrey wasn’t doing this just for his own sexual gratification. He was building something out.” She then added this jaw dropping line, Epstein “told me to have things on people, so the young girls were there to serve a purpose, a grander, bigger purpose, darker purpose.”
When I asked her point bank do you mean he had created an international blackmail scheme, she responded, “Well, Dean, I mean, you hit it on the nail there. I mean, that’s exactly what was going on.” Phillips flagged the real question that demands an answer: “How deep it goes, and who’s involved?”
And Phillips also confirmed that Epstein had video cameras everywhere. She noted, Epstein “videoed everything on his island, everything in his house,” all “so he has the proof.” That “proof” of course was for blackmail purposes just as Trump’s Commerce Secretary told the us last week.
Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda explained at the Capitol Hill press conference why she and others who suffered Epstein’s evil need files like these videos and photos released. She stated, “The worst part is that the government is still in possession right now of documents and information that could help me remember and get over all of this maybe, and help me heal.”
All of this means that the Epstein case is not going away despite Trump and Bondi’s desperation to once again hide this from the public. And it shouldn’t be allowed to disappear from view. I don’t say that for political reasons but because the survivors deserve justice. As Phillips told me, “it hurts that Epstein took advantage of us, abused us, groomed us yet no one has really been held accountable.”
Every person involved in trafficking women—and especially the children–for sex, must be prosecuted. And we must use our voices to make that happen!
