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Attorney General Pam Bondi is under mounting pressure to testify before Congress following a report that she informed President Donald Trump his name appeared in internal documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation.
According to a report published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, Bondi told Trump earlier this year that his name was among several high-profile individuals listed in the case files of Epstein, the late financier who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges.
Trump’s ties to Epstein are well-documented, but the revelation that Bondi privately briefed the president on the contents of the investigation has reignited Democratic demands for oversight and transparency.
“We need to bring Bondi and [FBI Director] Kash Patel into the Judiciary Committee to testify about this now,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) late Wednesday.
DOJ Pushes Back as Pressure Builds
The Department of Justice, which recently declined to release the full Epstein files despite mounting public interest, issued a joint statement from Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche responding to the report.
“As part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,” the statement read.
“Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
The DOJ did not comment further, and the White House declined to confirm whether Trump had requested the briefing. Still, Bondi’s direct communication with the president—regarding sealed or confidential case material—has fueled concerns about transparency and potential interference.
Trump’s History With Epstein
Trump’s name has appeared in previously unsealed court filings related to Epstein, including flight logs and witness depositions. In a 2016 deposition, one Epstein accuser said she spent time at Trump’s Atlantic City casino but offered no accusation of misconduct or direct contact with Trump himself.
While Trump once called Epstein a “terrific guy,” he has since distanced himself from the disgraced financier, saying the two had a falling-out long before Epstein’s arrest.
A White House spokesman, Steven Cheung, dismissed the latest reports as politically motivated.
“This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media,” Cheung said.
Ongoing Secrecy and Public Pressure
Thousands of pages of Epstein-related records have become public in recent years through lawsuits, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and court proceedings. However, the DOJ’s continued refusal to release certain documents has fueled conspiracy theories, public speculation, and bipartisan calls for disclosure.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida denied the DOJ’s request to unseal grand jury records from 2005 and 2007, citing binding precedent. That ruling only intensified congressional efforts to obtain more transparency through subpoenas and hearings.
“The American public deserves full transparency—especially when powerful names are involved,” Schiff said. “We need answers.”
If the Senate Judiciary Committee proceeds with hearings, it could become the first high-profile public testimony directly linking Bondi, Trump, and the federal government’s internal handling of the Epstein investigation.
