The tumultuous congressional grilling of Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed a lot of the priorities of the Justice Department, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steel argued, and showed that the agency's problems for Donald Trump are "not going away."
Steele previously led the RNC from 2009 to 2011, but has for the last decade been a prominent conservative critic of Trump and his political agenda. Writing in a piece for MS NOW Thursday morning, he broke down Bondi's testimony to the House Judiciary Committee and its implications, arguing that while it may have impressed Trump, it "failed badly" at putting the Epstein files scandals to rest.
"Bondi repeatedly criticized the administrations of Joe Biden and prior presidents for their handling of Epstein," Steele detailed. "She accused Democrats of focusing on the files to distract from Trump’s criminal justice agenda and in one bizarre instance even cited the performance of the stock market to defend the president."
Bondi's deflection on the Epstein issue was typified by an exchange in which survivors of the late sex trafficker's abuse in attendance were asked to stand up and raise their hands if they had been unable to meet with the DOJ.
"If there is justice in the world, the photograph of Bondi looking straight ahead as a row of women raises their hands behind her will haunt her for the rest of her career," Steele argued.
Throughout the hearing, Bondi repeatedly responded to interrogation about the Epstein files and other subjects with personal attacks and insults. According to Steele, she refused to engage with the central question of how much responsibility the DOJ bears for the survivors, and revealed the real focus of her work within the agency.
"She did not face the survivors. She did not apologize. She did not signal that their pain, their stories or their demand for transparency would guide the department’s next steps," Steele wrote. "And that is what she revealed under oath. She revealed a department more animated by partisan defense than by moral clarity. She revealed an instinct to protect power rather than pursue truth and justice. She revealed that, in this moment, loyalty appears to carry more weight than accountability."
He concluded: "If the attorney general will not turn around and face the victims standing behind her, the American people must face what that means about the Trump administration. The Epstein files are not going away. Neither is the demand for justice."
