This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 7 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
The story of the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein just will not go away, and Attorney General Pam Bondi is at the center of the Trump administration’s response to it.
Remember, Bondi is the one who told Fox News back in February that she had the Epstein files sitting on her desk, awaiting release. She’s also the one who tasked agents with working around the clock to vet all of the material the Justice Department has collected on Epstein, including reportedly flagging mentions of Donald Trump — that is, according to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who cited a protected FBI whistleblower disclosure.
So predictably, when Bondi sat before that committee on Tuesday, the topic of Epstein naturally came up.
During one notable exchange with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Bondi was asked about reporting from author Michael Wolff, who alleged Epstein had shown him a photo of Trump with topless young women. Whitehouse questioned Bondi whether she was aware if the FBI had found those photographs in its search of Epstein’s estate.
Bondi shot back, accusing the senator of making “salacious remarks” and “trying to slander” Trump. The attorney general also alleged Whitehouse took money from “one of Epstein’s closest confidants,” Reid Hoffman.
Hoffman has said his interactions with Epstein were limited only to fundraising for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and that he deeply regrets his role in rehabilitating the disgraced financier’s reputation after his 2008 arrest. And in a video posted after Bondi’s testimony, Whitehouse said Hoffman has never given him “a dime.”
But none of this has anything to do with the senator’s initial question, which was about supposed pictures of Trump posing with half-naked young women — pictures that Epstein is alleged to have possessed.
In fact, Bondi did not actually respond one way or the other to the question. When The Daily Beast first reported on Wolff’s allegations back in October of 2024, the then-Trump campaign told the outlet:
Michael Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics. He waited until days before the election to make outlandish false smears all in an effort to engage in blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris. He’s a failed journalist that is resorting to lying for attention.
Since his re-election, Trump has repeatedly denied doing anything improper with Epstein, and the White House has insisted the president cut ties with the financier for being a “creep.”
To be completely clear, this is just one accusation from one person who spoke to Epstein. We have no means of independently verifying Wolff’s reporting — nor does anyone, really. But given that it was introduced into the congressional record by a sitting U.S. senator, it’s worth exploring where this allegation came from.
Of course, there is a way to possibly fact-check this allegation involving Trump and the many other claims surrounding Epstein: Congress could vote to release the Epstein files. But right now, House Speaker Mike Johnson is blocking that vote, in part by refusing to seat Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who won her special election two weeks ago.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
