Pam Bondi has told lawmakers that Ghislaine Maxwell deserves to ‘die in prison’ and is more evil than Jeffrey Epstein’s male accomplices because, as a woman, she preyed on her own sex.
The recently ousted Attorney General was grilled by lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee Friday as they investigate an alleged ‘cover-up’ and Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files while leading the Justice Department.
Bondi testified that Maxwell should ‘die in prison’ during the four-hour transcribed interview which has not yet been released to the public.
The comments were relayed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon who joined Bondi at the hearing and told the New York Post, the former AG had singled Maxwell out as ‘very evil’ after she spent years supplying underage girls to Epstein.
‘Females who collaborate with sex offenders are worse because they procure other victims for the sex offender,’ Dhillon said Bondi had expressed.
Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison during Bondi’s tenure after she agreed to an interview with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, fueling speculation that she struck a deal with the Trump administration.
Bondi was fired by Trump on April 2 and replaced by Blanche as acting AG after months of controversy over her handling of the Epstein files.
The 60-year-old was diagnosed with thyroid cancer shortly after leaving her post, and was seen on Friday wearing a bandage over her neck.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, arrives for her closed-door interview on Capitol Hill Friday morning
Bondi, who has undergone treatment for thyroid cancer, appeared with a bandage on her neck
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (L) has questions for Bondi about Jeffrey Epstein
Early last year, Bondi told reporters that the sex offender and pedophile’s client list was ‘sitting on my desk right now,’ but no additional arrests have been made since the former Attorney General said she’d conduct a review.
Following the closed-door session, Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, likened Bondi’s noncompliance to a ‘cover-up.’
‘The United States Department of Justice is intervening on behalf of Pam Bondi to stop her from answering questions about what happened in the cover-up of this case and her conversations with Donald Trump,’ she told reporters.
The top Democratic lawmaker on the committee, Congressman Robert Garcia, slammed Republicans for not having Bondi sworn in under oath for her interview.
He also slammed Comer for not videotaping the interview for future publication.
Garcia said after the closed-door session that Bondi claimed she did not know why Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking, was moved to a lower security federal facility last year.
‘In fact, she said that she would not speak or respond to any questions that [had] anything to do with President Trump,’ Garcia told reporters.
USA Today reported that Bondi blamed some ‘redaction errors’ when publishing the Epstein files.
‘I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself,’ she said, according to the outlet. ‘I delegated oversight of this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.’
Reacting to the report, Bondi posted on social media: ‘I praised Acting AG Blanche’s management of this Herculean task. I said his ethics are beyond reproach and that he is an incredible Attorney General.’
Donald Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000
The First Lady said that rumors on social media that linked her to Epstein are false, and that she met Donald Trump at a party in 1998, not through the sex offender
Further, some lawmakers have outstanding questions about whether all documents were released as mandated by the Epstein Transparency Act passed last fall.
‘We’ll come and tell you what she (Bondi) said,’ Comer told reporters. ‘We’ll release all the transcripts, and if anyone is lying to Congress, that’s a felony.’
He noted it was Bondi’s second time ‘voluntarily’ coming to speak with the Oversight panel.
‘The government has failed the (Epstein) survivors. There’s no question about that, and that dates back five presidential administrations,’ Comer said. ‘We want to try to provide justice for the survivors.’
The committee could have subpoenaed Bondi to testify in a public setting, but has explained that since she was ousted from the DOJ, she will instead do a closed-door interview.
Had she sat for official testimony before the committee, the session would have been televised.
The Committee subpoenaed Bondi in March after Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace moved to compel the ex-AG’s testimony. It passed with four GOP and all Democratic votes.
Though after Bondi was removed from the DOJ, Comer clarified that the session would be downgraded to a closed-door hearing.
Several of Epstein’s victims were in attendance on the Capitol complex for the private interview.
Last month, First Lady Melania Trump stunned when she delivered a press conference addressing her reported ties to Epstein, where she denied the two were close.
‘I am not Epstein’s victim,’ the First Lady stated during the address. ‘Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump. I met my husband by chance at a New York City party in 1998.’
Trump and Melania met that year at the Kit Kat Klub in New York when the former supermodel was 28 years old. Paolo Zampolli, a modeling agency boss who is serving as Trump’s special envoy for global partnerships, claims he introduced the couple. They later married in 2005.
‘I’ve never been friends with Epstein,’ she added.
The announcement came as a shock, as there had not been recent revelations linking her to the disgraced financier, who the government says committed suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges in August 2019.
The First Lady noted then that Epstein did not work ‘alone,’ and she called for the government to aid his victims.
‘I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors,’ she added.
