“Epstein, Epstein, Epstein.”
That was the exasperated refrain from Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) during Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi, a hearing that should have centered on survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse but instead showcased all the conceit and sexism of the GOP and Bondi herself.
One of the all-white (with hair to match), middle-aged, narrow-minded Republican men dominating the committee’s GOP side, Van Drew seemed far more interested in shouting Epstein’s name than demanding justice for the women harmed by him and his powerful associates.
As survivors sat in the room, Republicans talked about everything except the questions Americans actually want answered:
- Why hasn’t there been full accountability?
- Why are co-conspirators still uncharged?
- Why were victims’ identities exposed?
- Why does it appear that the rich and powerful always come out on top?
There was a stunning lack of self-awareness. Republicans angrily complained about their personal information being referenced in the investigations of Special Counsel Jack Smith, yet showed little concern for survivors whose names and identifying details were alarmingly visible and unredacted.
They spoke with outrage about themselves, but indifference toward exploited girls and women.
They ignored the survivors. They ignored the uncharged co-conspirators. They ignored calling out the wealthy men who enabled or participated in Epstein’s abuse. Bondi’s only response came from her pathetic “burn book,” loaded with nonsense about Democrats on the committee.
Van Drew’s performance was especially galling. This is the lawmaker who switched parties in 2019 rather than vote to impeach Donald Trump, to whom he pledged “undying support.” Watching him now, breathlessly invoking Epstein as if he were some trivial offender, he seemed to ooze annoyance, as though the whole thing was just an inconvenience.
Presiding over it all was Chairman Jim Jordan, who carries his own longstanding controversy. Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, from 1987 to 1995. Team doctor Richard Strauss abused at least 177 male students, according to a 2019 independent investigation. Former wrestlers allege Strauss’s misconduct was an open secret and Jordan knew but failed to act.
The irony of Jordan chairing a hearing about answerability over sexual exploitation was impossible to ignore. Abuse survivors were in the room, yet the man banging the gavel has faced years of questions about whether he failed to protect young athletes.
And yet — almost impressively, in such company — it was Bondi who did most to turn the proceedings into a seedy and tawdry spectacle.
She was defensive, combative, and dismissive, and yammered like a political hack. When Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the only Republican willing to press her directly, challenged her about the Epstein files, she laughed.
She deflected. She repeatedly blamed her predecessor, Merrick Garland, as if she were a bystander rather than the sitting attorney general responsible for the department’s actions and compliance with federal law.
Massie cut through it. In essence, he told her: this is your responsibility.
She insisted she wanted to hear from victims, yet when asked whether they had ever met with her or anyone at the DOJ, not one survivor in the room stood to say yes.
If this is what “supporting victims” looks like, no wonder survivors feel abandoned.
Perhaps the most jarring moment came when Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) confronted Bondi.
Balint, the first woman and openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress, has spoken openly about how her worldview is shaped by her family’s Holocaust history.
Instead of addressing the substance of Balint’s questions about Epstein survivors, Bondi pivoted to accusations of antisemitism. The implication was vulgar and deeply inappropriate.
Balint forcefully reminded Bondi that her own grandfather was killed in the Holocaust.
As Balint angrily left the room, Bondi laughed.
It was a horrific display, tone-deaf and insidious, and was emblematic of the broader indifference shown toward the survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
Meanwhile, Democrats — including Black, Asian, LGBTQ+, and women lawmakers — centered questions on the survivors.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) asked the question that cut to the heart of the matter: What compensation should survivors receive if the DOJ exposed their identities?
Survivors were asked to stand if they had confidence in Bondi. Not one stood. That silence summed up Bondi’s obtuse testimony.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) described Bondi’s performance as “Jekyll and Hyde.” The description fitted. She was syrupy and deferential with Republicans, openly hostile to Democrats. She claimed to protect victims while attacking those who pressed for accountability.
Bondi went so far as to call Trump “the greatest president in history.” It was an astonishing display of political fealty from an attorney general sworn to uphold the law, not flatter a dictator.
Pressed about Epstein, she shifted blame back, invoking Garland again and again, echoing her boss’s familiar tactic of redirecting responsibility to the past.
But the Epstein files are on Bondi now. And she prepared for the hearing not by making sure the victims’ questions were answered, but by memorizing her opposition research.
What this hearing revealed was not a commitment to transparency or justice. It revealed a pattern of deflecting blame, protecting the powerful, marginalizing survivors. Cry loudly when your own information is mentioned, shrug when victims’ identities are compromised.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) told Bondi she did a good job of “suffering fools.” He was referring to Democrats. But it was Bondi and Grothman’s GOP colleagues who were fatuous fools.
Wrapping up the hypocrisy of it all was a Baptist “minister,” Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC), implying that former CNN journalist Don Lemon was “accosting” members of the church he was reporting on when he was wrongly arrested. Harris nodded at racism, and lied about Lemon. The antithesis of “minister.”
The GOP members of the committee made their priorities clear. They lied. They sneered. They deflected. They protected their own. They ignored the women in the room.
The hearing was a masterclass in misogyny, staged by stale, old, white, narrow-minded Republicans.
- John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her “Best 25 of 2025.”
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