8 hours ago
11
ARTICLE AD BOX
Sen. John Barrasso on Sunday defended embattled Attorney General Pam Bondi amid accusations that she botched the investigation into late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his supposed client list.
The announcement last week that the Department of Justice and the FBI were closing the Epstein case after finding no incriminating client list and no credible evidence that Epstein had blackmailed anyone left some of the most prominent MAGA voices seething.
Asked Sunday if he still has confidence in Ms. Bondi, Mr. Barrasso said, “I do.”
“Pam Bondi and her team are getting hardened criminals off the streets,” the Wyoming Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “America is safer with Pam Bondi as attorney general.”
President Trump also rushed to Ms. Bondi’s defense over the weekend.
“Let Pam Bondi do her job,” Mr. Trump posted Saturday in all caps on Truth Social, as he called on his supporters to “not waste time and energy” on the Epstein case.
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’” Mr. Trump posted. “They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.”
The fervor over the decision to close the Epstein case has led some of Mr. Trump’s allies to accuse Ms. Bondi of being part of a cover-up and demand she resign from her post as the nation’s top cop.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon warned the crowd Saturday at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit that the decision will cost the Republican Party at the polls in the midterm elections.
“For this to go away, you’re going to lose 10% of the MAGA movement,” Mr. Bannon said. “If we lose 10% of the MAGA movement right now, we’re going to lose 40 seats in ’26, we’re going to lose the [presidency].”
Megyn Kelly, a conservative political commentator and former Fox News host, said Ms. Bondi has “humiliated the administration.”
“This is a self-inflicted wound, she caused it,” Ms. Kelly said. “Again, I have nothing against Pam Bondi, but if you want to look for the villain in this story, we have found her. She is either lying now or she was lying then. There are no two ways about it.”
Epstein was a well-connected financier and convicted sex offender who police said killed himself in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking.
For years, the Epstein case has fueled conspiracy theories — both on the political left and the right — about his death and the notion that he kept a client list that would implicate some of the nation’s most well-known figures.
Before joining the Trump administration, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino promoted the idea that the government was hiding information about the case and demanded the release of the files. Ms. Bondi added more fuel to the fire.
In an interview earlier this year with Fox News, Ms. Bondi said the Epstein list “is sitting on my desk right now to review.” In another interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Ms. Bondi accused the Biden administration of sitting on thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein case.
However, Mr. Patel announced last month that the investigation showed Epstein committed suicide in his jail cell.
“Do you think that myself, Bongino, and others would participate in hiding information about Epstein’s grotesque activities?” Mr. Patel said on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Mr. Bongino is reportedly fuming about how Ms. Bondi handled the Epstein case and is mulling resigning from his FBI post.
In the memo released last week, the Justice Department said the “systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’”
“There was also no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” it said. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
English (US) ·