Current acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was, as deputy attorney general, responsible for the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, former Attorney General Pam Bondi repeatedly told members of Congress and staff in a closed-door interview last month.
The revelations come the day after President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Blanche to replace Bondi, who he fired in April, as the head of DOJ — and as Blanche contends bipartisan blowback over now-abandoned plans to launch a $1.8 billion fund awarding payouts to victims of “lawfare.”
It also comes as Bondi has continued to face scrutiny of her own for how she facilitated the release of the Epstein files, which came only after prolonged delays and botched or incomplete redactions.
According to a transcript released Thursday of Bondi’s hourslong interview with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of its Epstein investigation, Bondi frequently said Blanche was in charge of the task and noted that “Blanche supervised [the] entire process” to fulfill requirements of the the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law passed by Congress in November that mandated the DOJ release materials in the case.
If there was any training for those completing the redactions, it would have been overseen by Blanche, Bondi told lawmakers. She also said it was Blanche’s responsibility to determine whether a document was privileged, Bondi told lawmakers.
“He was leading the Epstein matter and the release of everything from the beginning,” Bondi said, according to the transcript.
Bondi’s repeated invocation of her likely successor casts a new, potentially unflattering spotlight on Blanche as his fate in the top post at DOJ is uncertain, with early indications from key GOP senators that his path to confirmation could be tumultuous.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bondi was subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee in March to answer for the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, after five House Republicans voted with Democrats to force her testimony. Bondi was later ousted by Trump, and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) downgraded her appearance to a transcribed interview, meaning it would not be videotaped nor conducted under oath.
Oversight Democrats quickly argued that, given Bondi’s remarks, the committee needed to hear from Blanche and suggested they could soon force a committee vote to subpoena his testimony as well. Blanche’s expected nomination to lead the Justice Department, coupled with the release of Bondi’s interview transcript, could amplify calls for Blanche to testify.
Despite Bondi’s departure from the administration, DOJ staff joined her for the interview last week, at times interjecting on her behalf. Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, maintained that she was there “to represent the interests of the DOJ and its interest in effectuating the Transparency Act.” DOJ has said it was not there to represent Bondi in a personal capacity.
But during the interview, Dhillon reminded Bondi she could not discuss “protected communications” and asserted that inquiries were beyond the agreed upon scope of the conversation. She also noted that Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill was a voluntary interview — not a deposition — so Bondi did not need to assert a privilege in declining to answer a question.
Other than Bondi’s multiple references to Blanche, her transcribed interview appeared to offer little in the way of new, bombshell information about the administration’s handling of the Epstein case.
Bondi could not recall who managed the process that led to a July 2025 memo on Epstein that sparked immediate outrage in the case. That unsigned memo from the DOJ and FBI stated that authorities did not have a so-called client list, nor did they plan to release further information about the Epstein case. Many accused the administration at that time of reneging on its promise of transparency, laying the groundwork for eventual passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Bondi also declined to give a status update on the case out of the Southern District of New York, where she had directed the U.S. attorney’s office to continue to investigate the Epstein matter — instead referring questions on the matter to Blanche or U.S. attorney Jay Clayton.
When asked about a conversation she had with Trump, in which she reportedly told him he was mentioned in the Epstein files, Bondi refused to speak about any potential conversation with the president. At one point, Bondi invoked “privilege” over her conversations with Trump; when pressed about the nature of that privilege, Dhillon said those kinds of questions were non-starters.
“We’re not going to get into any conversations that the former Attorney General had with other senior members of the — executive members of the White House and the immediate staff of the President,” Dhillon said to the Oversight Committee, according to the transcript.
Bondi did, however, provide details on the White House Situation Room meeting between top administration officials and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who was one of few House Republicans who signed onto the discharge petition that forced a floor vote on the Epstein files transparency bill.
The former attorney general quibbled, however, with the characterization that the topic of the meeting was to lobby Boebert against the bill, saying she “recall[ed] the discussion with her was the concern about passing the bill would jeopardize the identity of victims. Which is exactly what ended up happening after the bill was passed; victims’ names were inadvertently released. I recall the topic being protecting victims.”
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