Pam Bondi is finally done testifying, and the only thing more insulting than her performance was watching the House Judiciary Republicans treat her like she’d just descended from Mount Mar‑a‑Lardo carrying the sacred tablets of Trump’s talking points. The hearing was supposed to be about oversight. What it became was a loyalty ritual - a public display of fealty where the only acceptable posture was kneeling, nodding, or praising Bondi for refusing to answer a single meaningful question.
Let’s be clear about who was actually in the room today. Jim “Gymbo” Jordan, the committee’s resident chaos conductor, led the MAGA chorus. He didn’t ask about the six redacted men. He didn’t ask why survivors’ names and photos were left unredacted. He didn’t ask why the DOJ violated the Epstein Transparency Act. He just smiled, nodded, and congratulated Bondi for “staying strong,” which apparently means “reading the script Trump’s team handed you and refusing to deviate even when confronted with facts.”
Other Republicans on the committee followed the same script: praise Bondi, attack Democrats, ignore survivors. They treated her like she was a brave truth‑teller instead of the Attorney General responsible for a document release so catastrophically mishandled it should be preserved in the National Archives under “Exhibits of Shame.”
Actual Republican oversight? A myth. A rumor. A creature as rare as a MAGA member who’s read the Epstein Transparency Act they voted on.
And then came the Democrats — the only people in the room who acted like this hearing was about justice instead of job security in a future Trump administration.
Jamie Raskin opened with surgical precision, introducing Bondi to the survivors seated behind her - women whose names and photos were illegally left unredacted by the DOJ - and asking her to “put away the burn book.” She didn’t. She clutched that binder like it contained the nuclear codes. She refused to turn around. Refused to look at the survivors. Refused to acknowledge them. She stared straight ahead like they were ghosts.
Pramila Jayapal asked survivors to raise their hands if they still hadn’t been able to meet with the DOJ. Every single one raised their hand. Jayapal then asked Bondi to apologize to them directly. Bondi refused. She wouldn’t turn around. She wouldn’t look at them. She wouldn’t even say their names. She just launched into another pre-written monologue about “protocol” and “process,” as if the women behind her weren’t living proof of her department’s failure.
Jerry Nadler pressed her on the six redacted men — the ones whose names were blacked out for no legal reason. Bondi dodged. Veronica Escobar asked whether Bondi understood the danger survivors now face — the doxxing, the harassment, the death threats survivors have publicly said they’ve received. Bondi raised her voice and accused Democrats of “politicizing” the issue. Hank Johnson asked why the DOJ claimed it needed extra time to “carefully review the files to protect victims,” only to release a document dump that endangered them. Bondi whined. She deflected. She refused to answer.
And then came Ted Lieu, who delivered the moment that will define this hearing long after Bondi’s binder is back in whatever MAGA vault it came from.
Lieu asked Bondi a direct question about her previous statements — statements contradicted by the facts. Bondi dodged. Lieu repeated the question. Bondi dodged again. And then Lieu said it plainly, on the record, into the microphone:
“I believe you just committed perjury.”
Bondi froze. Blinked. Tried to recover. She insisted she hadn’t. She insisted she was being attacked. She insisted she was telling the truth. Lieu repeated the accusation… calmly, clearly, and with the kind of prosecutorial precision Bondi pretends to have. He didn’t back down. He didn’t soften it. He didn’t let her wriggle out of it.
Bondi’s response? She went back to the binder. Back to the script. Back to the pre-written monologues that had nothing to do with the question she’d just been asked. She didn’t defend her statements. She didn’t clarify them. She didn’t correct them. She just retreated into the safety of the Trump‑approved talking points like a turtle pulling its head into its shell.
And the Republicans? They didn’t ask why the Attorney General was being accused of perjury in real time. They didn’t ask what statement triggered the accusation. They didn’t ask whether the DOJ had misled Congress. They didn’t ask anything. They just praised her for “remaining composed,” which is apparently what they call “refusing to answer questions while being accused of lying under oath.”
This wasn’t a hearing. It was a cover-up with assigned seating.
Bondi refused to answer.
Republicans refused to ask.
Democrats refused to let it slide.
Survivors refused to be erased.
And now the whole country has seen exactly who the DOJ chose to protect — and who they chose to sacrifice.
Add comment
Comments