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The Situation Room
Attorney General Bondi Testifies on Capitol Hill. Aired 10:30- 11a ET
Aired February 11, 2026 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- shot down by our military. That's what we all should care about right now, protecting America.
As we seek to dismantle these drug trafficking networks that poison Americans, in 2025, our DEA agents seized more than 47 million fentanyl pills and more than 9,800 total kilos of fentanyl. That represents 369 million potentially deadly doses that can kill Americans. Meanwhile, our attorneys are fighting for President Trump's agenda in courtrooms across this country. This administration has been sued 627 times.
We fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process. In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the U.S. Supreme Court, their emergency docket, and even more to come. We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping FASAC prosecutions, exposing the Arctic Frost scandal via congressional disclosure, thank you, Chairman, and restoring one tier of justice in this country.
To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress's law. We've released more than 3 million pages, including 180,000 images, all to the public, while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims. And if you brought us a victim's name that was inadvertently released, we immediately redacted it. All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. I'm a career prosecutor, and despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster.
If you have any information to share with law enforcement about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you. I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated. The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
In 2025, the FBI arrested over 1,700 child predators, a 10 percent increase from 2024. We also located 2,700 victims of child exploitation and shut down 3.8 million dark web pedophile accounts. 3.8 million. So, please, if you have information to share that needs to be investigated, contact the FBI.
Today, I look forward to discussing further our shared obligation to protect the American people, uphold the rule of law, and keep this nation safe. Thank you.
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Thank you, Madam Attorney General. The chair now -- we'll present the five-minute rule. The chair recognizes the gentleman from California for five minutes.
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam General, thank you for your extensive remarks, particularly on your continued investigation of those responsible over the years in the Epstein debacle. Obviously, you have an amazingly full docket between civil rights, between criminal, between so-called white-collar crime, and doing so, as the chairman said, at a time in which both you and the president are under attack and our ICE agents, and FBI and others are under attack when they try to enforce the law.
[10:35:00]
I personally want to apologize for those who would embolden, support, or even stand with those lawbreakers that sit on this and other daises here in Congress. My job generally is to talk about patents and trademarks as the chairman of that subcommittee. I'll forego that today because one of my other jobs is the creation and maintenance of Article III judges, and I work with the chief justice on that, and we're trying to expand the court.
But currently, there are only 677 district court judges. They have very full dockets as well. But you create a tremendous amount of judges, particularly immigration judges. You do so in order to save the court that, but adjudicate, as is requirement, each of those people who claim a right to be here in the United States, and that has been going on under Republican and Democratic administrations for years.
What's unique about the Trump administration this time is that you and President Trump have managed to reduce the backlog of people seeking that for the first time in decades. You are getting ahead of that tremendous backlog that caused, for better or worse, the release of millions of people --
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've been listening to this hearing on Capitol Hill with the Attorney General, Pam Bondi. I want to bring in CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, Paula Reid. Paula, what's standing out to you from Bondi so far? And just speak to just how high the stakes are for her today.
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, this is incredibly high stakes for the Attorney General. She has faced a bipartisan firestorm over her own handling of the Epstein files. As you know, it's an occupational hazard for any attorney general. You find yourself at the center of every major controversy in the country.
But what is unique here is, in many ways, Bondi is herself the controversy. It's the way she made promises that they didn't keep. It's the way her agency has redacted or not redacted these files. She's also going to face questions about how she has used this department as sort of a clearinghouse for the president's personal grievances. These questions are about her handling of her job, not necessarily just cases.
So, she's going to need all the help she can get from Republicans on this committee to try to keep on her message. She wants to focus on violent crime. She wants to focus on her efforts to combat drugs coming into this country. That's going to be really difficult to do because there's a lot of very legitimate questions, particularly about the Epstein matter, the weaponization of the Justice Department.
Historically, Bondi's done really well in these hearings. She keeps her composure. She manages to not sort of let any of these lawmakers get under her skin. And she usually tries to deflect tough questions with these little one-line zingers that she comes prepared with. But today, with Democrats invoking Epstein victims in their line of questioning, that approach is unlikely to work. So, we'll be watching very closely how she handles all those tough questions. Wow.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Paula Reid, we'll get back to you. We're going to watch this hearing, very lively hearing. The Democrats really going after her big time. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat, was extremely tough, criticizing so many aspects of her job as the Attorney General of the United States. We're going to have a lot more of this hearing coming up.
BROWN: And you see the attack from Republicans trying to keep the focus more on immigration. We are continuing to monitor this, as you pointed out, Wolf. Still ahead here in the Situation Room, new developments in the search for Nancy Guthrie. We are live in Tucson with the very latest. You're in the Situation Room.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:00]
BLITZER: All right. We're going to get back to the hearing. The attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, getting ready to answer some tough questions from Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic congresswoman, who's there and asking the questions. I want to listen in.
BLACKWELL: Congresswoman, you sat before -- Merrick Garland sat in this chair twice.
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Attorney General Bondi --
BONDI: Can I finish my answer? JAYAPAL: No, I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked you a specific question that I would like you to answer, which is, will you turn to the survivors? This is not about anybody that came before you. It is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize for what your Department of Justice has done.
JORDAN: Members get to ask the questions. The witnesses get to answer in the way they want to answer. The Attorney General can respond.
JAYAPAL: That's not accurate, Mr. Chairman.
BONDI: Because she doesn't like the answer.
JAYAPAL: It is my time. So, Mr. Chairman --
BONDI: Why didn't she asked Merrick Garland this twice.
JAYAPAL: I'm reclaiming my time and when I reclaim my time, it is mine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman --
JACKSON: The gentlelady has reclaimed her time.
BONDI: I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics.
JORDAN: The time belongs to the gentlelady. The gentlelady has 17 seconds.
JAYAPAL: Thank you. You're not going to answer this question. So, let me just say this --
BONDI: Chairman, I'll direct it to you --
JAYAPAL: What a massive cover-up --
BONDI: No, I'm answering a question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman, will you restore her time? The witness is interrupting.
BONDI: I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman. She's doing theatrics.
JAYAPAL: Stop the time and let me have my turn.
[10:45:00]
JORDAN: The gentlelady from Washington controls the time. The gentlelady has 17 seconds. You can proceed with your final 17 seconds.
JAYAPAL: Thank you. What a massive cover-up this has been and continues to be. Donald Trump made the release of the Epstein Files the center of his political campaign because he thought it would benefit him. Then you got into office, Attorney General, claimed to have a client list, only to them say that there was no list. You're deputy, Todd Blanche, met alone with Ghislaine Maxwell and --
JORDAN: Time of the gentlelady has expired.
JAYAPAL: -- transferred her to a minimum-security prison. And now you continue to cover up and I wish that you would turn around to the survivors who are standing right behind and on a human level apologizing to them --
JORDAN: The chair now recognizes --
JAYAPAL: -- on what you have done.
JORDAN: Time of the gentlelady has expired.
JAYAPAL: I yield back.
JORDAN: You have no time to yield back.
BONDI: Theatrics.
JORDAN: We appreciate that. We appreciate the thought. The -- and I would argue, the central issue in the last election, the presidential election was securing the border. The gentleman from Arizona who knows something about securing the border is up for five minutes.
REP. ANDY BRIGGS (R-AZ): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Attorney General Bondi, for being here today. In 2022, Lafarge, which is a French cement company pled guilty in U.S. federal court to participating in a criminal conspiracy with ISIS. That conspiracy contributed to the deaths of U.S. services members fighting in Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve. As part of the plea agreement, Lafarge was required to pay more than $775 million to DOJ's Asset Forfeiture Fund.
In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the Department to review the petitions for remission submitted by the families of those fallen servicemembers, including several of my constituents. The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved. My question for you on this particular issue is if you are willing to work to ensure those families that their petitions will be reviewed and brought to a resolution.
BONDI: Congressman, we are aware of that and we are committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. Thank you for that question.
BRIGGS: Yes, I appreciate your answer. And now, let's go to something that is also pressing that I've been working on for years and this is the FISA Section 702 and Arctic Frost. In January 2025, you testified before the U.S. Senate and agreed with Senator Lee that, quote, "Anytime an American citizen's private communications are intercepted or stored, whether through incidental collection or otherwise, those communications should not be searched without some showing of probable cause," close quote. You still hold that view today, I assume?
BONDI: Yes.
BRIGGS: And during the most recent FISA re-offer --
BROWN: All right. You've been listening to this hearing with the Attorney General Pam Bondi on the House side. You saw that fiery exchange that the attorney general had with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal over the Epstein files. We'll continue to watch this, but we have to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:00]
BLITZER: Welcome back. We're following this important hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. The Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, answering questions from members of Congress. Jerry Nadler, the Democratic Congressman from New York, just starting his questioning.
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): I want to say that you and the other survivors of these heinous crimes deserve better from this Department of Justice. In particular, it is shocking that the Department did not redact the names of Epstein's victims, but it did redact the names of their abusers. I don't know whether this was done out of incompetence or whether it was deliberate and malicious, but either way, it is completely unacceptable. Even more troubling, the DOJ has failed to bring any of these perpetrators to justice. Instead, it has engaged in a relentless pursuit of Donald Trump's perceived enemies.
I want to focus on just one example. The attorney general of my home state of New York, Tish James. This DOJ has been hell-bent on securing an indictment against Ms. James for something, anything, simply because she held Donald Trump's companies accountable for years of financial fraud. And indeed, the Department manufactured an investigation against her for alleged, quote, "mortgage fraud."
But the U.S. Attorney leading the investigation, Erik Siebert, a Trump appointee, refused to bring charges against Ms. James because there was simply no evidence. Unfortunately, a prosecutor who refuses to do Trump's bidding has no place in this DOJ, so Mr. Siebert was forced out. Trump could not contain his fury, fury that he expressed to you in a social media post addressed to you by name. I'm sure you've seen it, quote, "I fired him and there is a great case he wrote to you about, Mr. Siebert." Then we move down. "We can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing. Justice must be served now." And obviously, you followed that order.
Lindsey Halligan, Trump's former defense lawyer who had never first prosecuted a case in her life, was installed to replace Mr. Siebert. And it was clear that part of her mandate was to go after Ms. James. Halligan immediately sought an indictment, which the court dismissed because Halligan was illegally put into the row. But your department was undeterred. Not once, but twice, it tried to indict Attorney General James in separate courts. Both grand juries rejected you and refused to indict her. It is practically unheard of for a grand jury to refuse an indictment.
[10:55:00]
In 2016, it happened in just six cases out of over 150,000 offenses, and you had happened twice in the same week in two different courts. That must have been humiliating and now there are reports that you are continuing to investigate the amount of resources that have gone into targeting Attorney General James. Months of investigations, multiple failed indictments is astounding.
Since your own prosecutors told you that there is not enough evidence to support a conviction, it's clear that you are going after her simply because she held President Trump accountable and he wants to punish her, and she is just one name on a long list of Trump political enemies that DOJ has reportedly targeting from Jerome Powell and Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserve to James Comey, numerous Democratic members of Congress, John Brennan, Jack Smith, Democratic officials in Minnesota, Chris Krebs, Miles Taylor, and more. Those are just the ones we know about.
In contrast to these politically motivated investigations, grasping is something they can charge their enemies with. We now have concrete evidence of disgusting criminality revealed in the Epstein files.
So, I have just -- so I really have just one question for you. How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? How many perpetrators are you even investigating?
BONDI: First, you showed it, you, I find it --
NADLER: How many have you indicted?
BONDI: Excuse me. I'm going to answer the question.
NADLER: Answer my question.
BONDI: No, I'm going to answer the question the way I want to answer the question.
NADLER: No, you're doing to answer the question the way I asked it.
BONDI: Your theatrics are ridiculous. Chairman Jordan, I'm not going to get gutter with these people.
NADLER: How many have --
BONDI: But I'm going to answer the question.
NADLER: How many have you indicted?
JORDAN: Again, the time belongs to --
NADLER: Reclaiming my time.
JORDAN: The time belongs --
BONDI: I think it's very interesting --
NADLER: Reclaiming my time.
BONDI: I think it's very interesting --
JORDAN: You can reclaim your time but --
BONDI: -- that he talks about they indicted, the president said they indicted him twice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman, please stop the clock. Stop the clock and restore his time.
BONDI: OK. Here we go with these theatrics.
JORDAN: The time belongs to the gentlemen from New York. We will give you a few more seconds. We will do that. But when you ask a question the witness gets -- you may not like the answer, but she gets to answer.
NADLER: The question was, how many of Epstein --
BONDI: They don't like the answer, Chairman --
NADLER: Reclaiming my time --
BONDI: -- because it's honest.
NADLER: Reclaiming.
BONDI: So, he asked a four-minute question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Restore 45 seconds to Mr. Nadler, please, Mr. Chairman.
NADLER: Reclaiming my time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch reclaim, not on our time. No way. And I told you about that attorney general before you started.
BONDI: You don't tell me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Oh, I did tell you because we saw what you did in the Senate.
BONDI: You're not even a lawyer.
NADLER: -- and I should get back at least 45 seconds.
JORDAN: We will give you a few more seconds. I said that already.
NADLER: 45 seconds.
JORDAN: OK. I will -- I'm timing right now, Mr. Nadler.
NADLER: Reclaiming my time. The answer to my question, how many of Epstein's co-conspirators has she indicted is zero. You have been the attorney general for a whole year, and your DOJ fired, the lead prosecutor of this case sat on evidence this entire time and claimed falsely last July that there were no more leads. It took an act of Congress for you to finally release part of the Epstein files, and when you did, you included personal information about the victims while protecting the names of abusers.
JORDAN: Time of the gentleman has expired.
NADLER: None of the perpetrators have been brought to justice, but enormous resource dedicated --
JORDAN: Time of the gentleman has expired.
NADLER: And it's clear that under your leadership, the Department of Justice no longer works.
JORDAN: There was no question in there.
NADLER: -- Donald Trump. I yield back.
JORDAN: The gentleman yields back.
BONDI: May I answer?
JORDAN: I think our next question -- Madam Attorney General, is going to give you time to respond to --
BONDI: Thank you, Chairman.
JORDAN: -- all kinds of things. So, we will turn to the gentleman from Texas for five minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ms. Bondi, you go right ahead. I'm over here. The time is yours.
BONDI: Thank you. First, he brought up the president saying they indicted me twice. They sure did. They tried to impeach him twice. And you, Mr. Nadler were one of the leads on the impeachment. I was on the other side. I lived that with you. During impeachment, you said the president conspired sought foreign interference. In the 2016 election. Robert Mueller found no evidence. None. A foreign interference in 2016. Have you apologized to President Trump? Have you apologized to President Trump? All of you who participated in those impeachment hearings against Donald Trump, you all should be apologizing.
You sit here and you attack the president, and I am not going to have it. I'm not going to put up with it. You know, all they want to do. All the, the American people need to know this. They are talking about Epstein today. This has been around since the Obama administration. This administration released over 3 million pages of documents, over 3 million, and Donald Trump signed that law to release all of those documents. [11:00:00]
