The Trump and Epstein question Pam Bondi refused to answer
Bondi wouldn't say whether the FBI recovered pics of Trump and topless young women from Epstein's property.
Journalism must scrutinize testimony for evasions, deflections, and revelations.
During pugilistic testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi would not say whether the FBI recovered photographs of Donald Trump and half-naked young women from Jeffrey Epstein’s property, despite multiple invitations to do so.
“There’s been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. “Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein’s safe or premises or otherwise?”
Whitehouse had been referring to author Michael Wolff’s claims on his podcast, “Fire & Fury,” that Epstein showed him photographs of “topless young women” sitting on Trump’s lap. Wolff said that Epstein kept the photos in his safe until the FBI seized it.
Bondi attacked Whitehouse for asking the question — without disputing its premise.
At first, Bondi deflected the question by falsely accusing Whitehouse of taking money from LinkedIn co-founder and liberal donor Reid Hoffman, a former Epstein associate. Like many in the financial, academic and political elite, Hoffman associated with Epstein after the sex offender’s state prosecution in Florida and came to regret it.
“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,” Bondi falsely asserted.
Federal election records show that none of Hoffman’s more than 1,600 individual contributions went to Whitehouse, who personally denied the connection after the hearing.
Whitehouse pressed Bondi on her nonanswer.
“The question is, did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed that Epstein showed them to him?” Whitehouse asked, pausing for an answer that did not come.
“You don’t know anything about that,” he continued.
After Bondi didn’t respond, Whitehouse moved on to a different question. The dodge was all the more remarkable because Trump’s FBI director Kash Patel previously denied that the bureau recovered such photographs.
Watch the exchange in full below.
Bondi also deflected on Homan’s $50,000
During other questioning from Whitehouse and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Bondi also refused to shed light on what happened to the $50,000 that Trump’s so-called border czar Tom Homan accepted in a paper bag from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking contracts in the soon-to-be incoming administration.
Senators tried several approaches to asking Bondi about the fate of the money, asking whether Homan returned it to the FBI or kept it. If the cash wasn’t returned, senators asked, did Homan declare it as income for his taxes?
After several iterations, Bondi repeated: “As Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently stated, the investigation of Mr. Homan was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of wrongdoing.”
On the supposed spying on GOP senators
The day before the hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued a press release claiming that former President Joe Biden’s FBI “spied” on eight Republican senators during the Jan. 6 investigation, releasing a one-page document that falls short of the advertising.
According to the document, investigators analyzed cell phone toll records involving the senators, several of whom were known to have had phone calls or text messages with Trump or Rudy Giuliani on, before or immediately after the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol.
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith disclosed the existence of those toll records in his final report on the Jan. 6 investigation. The disclosure appeared in a footnote to a line about Trump’s efforts to block the certification of Biden’s victory after praising the rioters who overran the Capitol on Twitter.
“At around the same time as he issued his 6:01 p.m. Tweet, Mr. Trump tried to reach two United States Senators, and he also directed [Giuliani] to call Members of Congress and attempt to enlist them to further delay the certification,” Smith’s report said.
Several of the senators on the list of the toll records reportedly received those calls or text messages, including Sens. Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Ron Johnson, and Tommy Tuberville.
At the hearing, Hawley repeatedly and falsely claimed to have been wiretapped. The FBI document says only that investigators obtained and analyzed “limited toll records,” which refers to the metadata. A grand jury authorized subpoenas for that information, which relates to Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election in the key time frame before, during and after the Capitol insurrection.
Many thanks for your attention to this telling testimony!