It was a disgraceful performance. Bondi responded to legitimate constitutional issues raised by the members of the committee with a stream of irrelevant insults. Her childish reactions showed that she is utterly unfit for her position. Of course, the Democrats on the committee were unfriendly, but it was her duty to maintain her composure and respond in a dignified manner. She conspicuously failed to do so.

Let's look first at her exchange with one of the best people in Congress, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who is a Republican, albeit one who has often clashed with Donald Trump. According to a story by Charlotte Hazard,  "Attorney General Pam Bondi clashed with Kentucky GOP Congressman Thomas Massie on Wednesday when she called him a failed politician during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. During the hearing, Massie criticized Bondi's leadership at the Department of Justice and said that the administration failed to comply fully with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna worked together in a bipartisan effort to get the files of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein released to the public. The DOJ has released millions of documents regarding Epstein and who he was in communications with, but some names are still redacted. Epstein was found guilty of sex trafficking minors in 2019. Massie asked Bondi why billionaire Les Wexner's name was redacted when he was listed as a co-conspirator for child sex trafficking. After a small spat, Bondi responded and said, 'We corrected that within 40 minutes, you're acting like everybody's trying to cover up Wexner's name.' Massie said he would be reclaiming his time and Bondi kept saying she wanted to answer the question. Bondi said within 40 minutes, Wexner's name was added back. 'Within 40 minutes of me catching you red-handed,' Massie snapped at her. 'There was one redaction and we invited you in," Bondi responded. 'This guy has Trump Derangement Syndrome. You're a failed politician.' Bondi eventually brought up the fact that under former Attorney General Merrick Garland, no one brought up Epstein. 'This goes over four administrations,' Massie said. "You don't have to go back to Biden. Let's go back to Obama. Let's go back to George Bush. This cover up spans decades and you are responsible for this portion of it.'

In an interview published in Politico, Massie elaborated on the situation involving Wexner. "Massie said Sunday serious questions remain about the DOJ's handling of the files, including the decision not to prosecute billionaire Leslie Wexner, a former client of Epstein's whose name appears several hundred times in the Epstein files. Wexner was one of six 'wealthy, powerful men' whose names were originally redacted in the Epstein files, Khanna and Massie revealed Tuesday, after reviewing unredacted copies of the files at the Justice Department. The DOJ later unredacted Wexner's name on a 2019 FBI document listing several potential 'co-conspirators' of Epstein's, including his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking charges. Wexner has maintained for years that he cut ties with the disgraced financier several decades ago when he realized that Epstein had illicitly taken money from him. 'The Assistant U.S. Attorney told Mr. Wexner's legal counsel in 2019 that Mr. Wexner was being viewed as a source of information about Epstein and was not a target in any respect,' a legal representative for Wexner said in a recent statement. 'Mr. Wexner cooperated fully by providing background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.'

"Bondi sent a legally required report to Congress on Saturday in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandated the DOJ supply lawmakers with a summary of all redactions made, including the legal basis for doing so, and a list of government officials named in the documents. In the letter, Bondi cited 'deliberative-process privilege' as one justification for redacting certain documents, a common-law principle that allows the federal government to withhold documents revealing internal decision-making. 'The problem with that is the bill that Ro Khanna and I wrote says that they must release internal memos and notes and emails about their decisions on whether to prosecute or not prosecute, whether to investigate or not investigate,' Massie said on ABC. 'It's important they follow that, because then we could find why they didn't prosecute Leslie Wexner. What was the decision tree there?' The release of unredacted prosecutorial and investigative documents could also shed light on the 2008 plea deal under which Epstein avoided severe federal charges and pleaded guilty to lesser state charges in Florida, Massie added."

In an exchange with Pramila Jayapat, a Democratic Congresswoman from Washington, it was revealed that the Department of Justice had failed to redact the names of child victims of Epstein, even though this could expose them to serious embarrassment. Bondi wouldn't apologize to the victims, some of whom were standing behind her. It also came out that Bondi had a folder detailing Jayapat's searches through the Epstein files, even though such surveillance is illegal. In an interview with Steve Inskeep, Jayapat said: "INSKEEP: This description of Justice Department surveillance becomes all the more interesting when you see an image from yesterday's congressional hearing. A Reuters photographer captured Attorney General Pam Bondi holding a document labeled, quote, 'Jayapal Pramila search history' – last name first there. The document had a list of what appeared to be individual Epstein file searches. She had it in hand while sidestepping questions from Representative Pramila Jayapal, who is our next guest.