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The Situation Room

Pam Bondi Testifies on Capitol Hill. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 11, 2026 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:00:02]

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: And Donald Trump signed that law to release all of those documents. He is the most transparent president in the nation's history.

And none of them, none of them asked Merrick Garland over the last four years one word about Jeffrey Epstein. How ironic is that? You know why? Because Donald Trump, the Dow, the Dow right now is over -- the Dow is over $50,000. I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stock trader, as I hear, Raskin.

The Dow is over 50000 right now, the S&P at almost 7,000, and the Nasdaq smashing records. Americans' 401(k)s and retirement savings are booming. That's what we should be talking about. We should be talking about making Americans safe.

We should be talking about -- what does the Dow have to do with anything? That's what they just asked. Are you kidding?

REP. LANCE GOODEN (R-TX): Mr. Jordan -- Mr. Jordan...

(CROSSTALK)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The committee will be in order.

GOODEN: Mr. Jordan, am I going to get an extra 45 seconds added to my time?

JORDAN: The committee will be in order. The time belongs to the gentleman from Texas. Ms. Bondi, the attorney general, can respond.

BONDI: Thank you.

The Dow has shattered 50000 for the first time. This is crazy. They said it couldn't be done in four years, yet President Trump has done it in one year. National media and rents have fallen to a four-year low, thanks to Donald Trump.

That's why they want to focus on Epstein and our most transparent president in the nation's history. The murder rate, as I said, has plummeted to a 125-year low, thanks to Donald Trump.

For an unprecedented, unprecedented nine straight months, there were zero illegal border crossings at the southern border. That's what we should be focused on, all the great work that this president has done and will continue to do to keep America safe and to make Americans safe.

GOODEN: Thank you, Attorney General Bondi. I agree with you totally. I think you have done a fine job. I think that Democrats in fact should be apologizing to the Epstein victims for doing nothing during the four years that they were running the government. We did not hear about this.

And it took you and President Trump to finally provide transparency and give answers to the American people. And I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you also for standing up for truth today and for fighting back against the theatrics and the time waste that you will endure over the next hour or two.

I want to apologize on behalf of my colleagues on the left. They're not all that bad, but they have got to put on a show. And I'm sorry that you have to go through that. And I would like to yield the last I'd say 40 -- even 40 -- it's 80 seconds. The clock says 40, but I have got 80 seconds since I was so rudely interrupted.

And I will give all 80 seconds to Chairman Jordan.

JORDAN: And I would just yield to the attorney general if she has anything to add.

BONDI: I'm fine to continue. Thank you, Chairman.

JORDAN: All right, the chair now recognizes -- the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentlelady from California.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would note that Mr. Nadler's question has not yet been answered.

But I want to start by asking, out of respect for the American public and the Epstein survivors, some of whom, of course, are here today, that we can have a transparent conversation and get the public the answers they deserve.

I want to briefly direct your attention to two documents I'm hoping we will put up on the screen. In the first, an individual e-mails Jeffrey Epstein asking whether a woman identified as M was pro or civilian. And Epstein responds that she was a civilian, Russian and fun.

In the second e-mail, Epstein writes to Steve Tisch about a Ukrainian girl, noting that she was -- quote -- "a little freaked out by the age difference" and stating that he would try to convince her not to return to Ukraine. He then instructs Mr. Tisch to call him, adding: "I don't like records of these conversations."

So I'd like to ask a straightforward question that really is either a yes-or-no answer. Do these e-mails constitute credible evidence, not proof, but credible evidence warranting further investigation into whether Steve Tisch was involved in Epstein's criminal conduct? Do you think yes or no?

[11:05:04]

BONDI: I'm not going to play a yes-no game with you, but I will answer the question to the best of my ability.

As I said, we will look and investigate any case involving any victim. I'm not familiar -- there were three million pages -- of course, with that e-mail. But of course, we will look into anything. The documents have been released, three million. The redacted versions, we should -- have left them open for all of you to come view.

I believe you viewed item. If not, will you have some copies?

LOFGREN: I'd like to.

BONDI: Could I finish, please? I'm not being rude. Please.

LOFGREN: I only have five minutes.

BONDI: No. Yes, and I only have 30 seconds, based on your filibuster.

LOFGREN: You didn't give a yes-or-no answer.

JORDAN: Time belongs to the gentlelady to California.

LOFGREN: So let me just go further.

Director Patel testified in this committee room that there was no credible information indicating that Epstein trafficked victims to anyone else. And glancing at the documents, that proves that's not the case.

In July, your department issued a memo stating that it had conducted an exhaustive review of the Epstein files and concluded that no additional individuals would be charged. So, I did go over to the Department of Justice yesterday.

BONDI: Good.

LOFGREN: I would note that 400 and all our 35 members are in the House, and there's four computers. So it would take many months to actually have the time. I only had a few hours.

I think the transparency argument is really kind of a sham, because it's not really possible...

BONDI: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you have to wait to get a computer?

JORDAN: Hang on. Hang on.

LOFGREN: It is not possible to really go in.

I did, however, see a U.S. attorney information for the Southern District of New York indicating that there were additional survivors and probable co-conspirators. Other members of Congress have uncovered likely co-conspirators whose names were blocked out. Now, the Epstein File Transparency Act, which all but one member of

this House voted for and the president signed, requires the department to release everything, except that it needs to be redacted to protect the victims or an ongoing prosecution, which apparently there is none from the testimony we have received.

I am concerned that this act has not been fully complied with. When Director Patel came to the committee, he admitted that up to 1,000 FBI agents had gone through the files and redacted President Trump's name from them.

And it's pretty clear that what has been transmitted from the FBI continues to redact President Trump's name, even though he is mentioned thousands of times in these files. So I think the credibility of the department in terms of complying with the act has been damaged.

And I think the department's credibility has been damaged in other ways. I think we all saw the horrible video of American citizens being killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis. And I think how the department has handled these cases raises a lot of doubt about the department.

State and local police in Minnesota got a court order to get access to the crime scene to be sure evidence would be properly preserved by federal agents. But they took the -- the agents defied the court order. And in a departure from general policy, DOJ is not collaborating with state and local law enforcement on these homicides.

So I really think that is a disgraceful approach to the homicides of American citizens and really does nothing to bring credit to your department.

And, Mr. Chairman, I would yield back.

JORDAN: Gentlelady yields back.

BONDI: May I answer?

JORDAN: The attorney general can respond.

BONDI: I find it interesting that she keeps going after President Trump, the greatest president in American history. And if they could maintain their composure...

(LAUGHTER)

BONDI: ... this isn't a circus. This is a hearing. I find it interesting she keeps going after Donald Trump.

She doesn't say how much money she took from Reid Hoffman, did you?

LOFGREN: None.

BONDI: And nor did she post anything...

(CROSSTALK) REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Mr. Chairman, regular order, please. Regular order.

BONDI: She posted nothing on her X account, on her Twitter account during the Biden years.

(CROSSTALK)

JORDAN: Gentlelady...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chairman, there was no question asked.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no question asked of the attorney general. She doesn't just get to speak.

JORDAN: The committee will be in order.

LOFGREN: I have a point of order, Mr. Chairman.

JORDAN: The committee will be in order.

LOFGREN: Point of order, Mr. Chairman.

JORDAN: The gentlelady can state her point of order.

LOFGREN: When a witness attacks...

JORDAN: Not a valid point of order. You've got to state...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: She hasn't completed her point of order yet. Please let her speak, Mr. Chairman. Let's have some regular order here.

JORDAN: Regular order is you've got to state the rule.

(CROSSTALK)

LOFGREN: I am trying to make a point of order that the witness...

JORDAN: What rule are you referring to?

LOFGREN: ... without responding to a question, has attacked me personally. I think it's pathetic that she can't answer the questions and instead is attacking members of...

[11:10:08]

JORDAN: That is not even close to the point of order.

The gentleman from Wisconsin is recognized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In August of last year, I sent a letter...

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: So you have been listening to a very fiery hearing, especially when it comes to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

You heard there she was just talking to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. And they were talking over each other a lot, raising voices. You heard the attorney general there say she's not going to put up with any attacks on President Trump.

At one point, the attorney general brought up the Dow and Wall Street, even though that really has nothing to do with DOJ.

So we're going to take a quick break, and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:25]

BROWN: All right, we're going to toss back to this hearing with the House Judiciary Committee with the attorney general, Pam Bondi. Let's listen in.

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): ... doing it for being brave and trying to move this justice forward. I apologize I can't do it, but, Attorney General, not recognizing it. That's embarrassing.

I am from Memphis, General Bondi, and Memphis does have the task force there. The Memphis Safe Task Force has been operating in Memphis for several months, and we do have a Democratic mayor, Paul Young, and he's not against the task force, but he's against ICE being in Memphis, and he's not in favor of the National Guard being in Memphis.

And I concur with him of those positions. I think the DEA being there, the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, the FBI, who have been in Memphis in other ways, having more people there is good for Memphis. Crime has gone down in Memphis, but it went down 25 percent before the task force got there under the direction of Mayor Young and Director Davis, Chief Davis.

It's gone down about 15 percent more since then, and that's good. But I would like to comment that Mexico City's homicide rate has gone down 40 percent during the same time, when Memphis has only gone down 25 percent, and that's not necessarily because of the task force, although the mayor says he thinks it's helped. So I thank you for that.

You would agree, I presume, that violent crime in communities across our country is critically important, and that's why the task force is there. Is that not true?

BONDI: Yes. And if I can just add to that, I think the surge, the FBI, our FBI under the leadership of Director Patel, came in and did a surge in Memphis prior...

COHEN: Earlier. BONDI: Yes, right, prior to the task force.

COHEN: If I...

BONDI: And thank you for saying that about Mayor Young. He's been great to work with, and thank you.

COHEN: He's a good guy.

BONDI: He's a very good guy.

COHEN: One problem I have got with where we are in priorities here, a recent Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice report based on arrest records in Texas and in California found that undocumented immigrants were less than half as likely as U.S.-born Americans to be arrested for homicide.

And this pattern holds for assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, theft, and arson, half as likely to be arrested for drug offenses. So I ask you, and I have written to you about this, there are TV ads that run that say to local law enforcement specifically, are you tired of having your hands handcuffed because you can't do the things you wanted to do when you joined?

And if you want to do something different, join ICE and you will get a $50,000 bonus and we will pay your -- pay off your debts, student debts, and we will help you with pensions, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

So they're encouraging local law enforcement to leave local law enforcement and go to work for ICE. We need people working in the front lines of local law enforcement to protect our citizens from the worst of the worst. The worst of the worst are not the immigrants. The worst of the worst, records show, are native-born Americans. And they are committing crimes that hurt our citizens and our cities.

And you're working against it. And thank you for that. But by trying to get our local law enforcement, where we have an undercount of officers in Memphis, to leave Memphis and go to work for ICE to deport people is a wrong priority. Why are we trying to get people, policemen who are working on the front lines to leave the front lines, take the $50,000 and go to work for ICE, instead of working to fight the worst of the worst?

BONDI: Congressman, I have not yet seen that commercial, that ad. I would argue that we need strong people in both local law enforcement, state law enforcement, and all of our federal agencies working together.

I have seen some of the worst of the worst violent criminals, violent criminals, who were in this country illegally. We both know that. And in Memphis, working hand in hand, I want to stick with Memphis and your mayor and what you discussed, because there have been nearly 6,000 arrests as of February 8, and I think you agree with this, in your district, in your district, and almost 600 gang members.

What we found in Memphis, a lot of the gangs are our local gangs, but 600 gang members were taken off the streets; 148...

COHEN: Let me reclaim my time, because I have only got 40 seconds. I'm going to agree with you.

BONDI: Yes.

COHEN: Yes, thank you for that.

BONDI: And 148 missing children were recovered by all of us working together and nearly 1,000 illegal guns were seized as a result of us working together.

COHEN: I would like to reclaim my time.

And I don't disagree with some of the things you said, but there are questions about those children, but it's a different thing. The fact is, ICE is running rampant, and you are not investigating them.

[11:20:05]

When they killed Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good, that was an execution, and you did not investigate it. And you tried to investigate her -- Ms. Good's widow, and you tried to investigate Mr. Pretti. They were executed, like Kristi Noem executed her dog. And that was wrong.

And you should investigate those people, and you should investigate anybody that uses a weapon, federal official or not, for civil rights violations.

I yield back the balance.

JORDAN: The gentleman yields back his time.

Madam Attorney General, any time you need a break, just let us know.

BONDI: Oh, I'm great. Thank you.

JORDAN: If not, we will just keep going.

The chair is now recognized for five minutes.

Madam Attorney General, you're not allowed to exercise your constitutional rights in a way that tramples on someone else's, are you?

BONDI: No.

JORDAN: No, you can't do that. I mean, you have a right to petition the government under the First Amendment. That doesn't mean you can come into this room and start screaming at Mr. Raskin or me or anybody else and disrupt the congressional hearing.

You have a right to protest on the street, but that doesn't give you a right to go into the Capitol and disrupt Congress, something these guys talk about every day. You can't do that. So when Don Lemon said that he was exercising his First Amendment free

press rights, freedom of the press rights, that's not really accurate because he was trampling on other individuals' rights. Is that true?

BONDI: Chairman, we will always protect our churches and the freedom of religion. And, yes, that's accurate.

JORDAN: First right mentioned under the First Amendment, freedom of religion.

BONDI: Right.

JORDAN: Freedom to practice your faith the way you think the good lord wants you to, right?

BONDI: That's right, under the federal government.

JORDAN: And isn't it true that Mr. Lemon met at a shopping center with the rioters who entered Cities Church in St. Paul, met with them prior to marching to the church?

BONDI: He did meet. And this is a pending case right now, so I will only stick to what is in the four corners of the unsealed indictment, if I could, Chairman.

JORDAN: Yes, I'm focused...

(CROSSTALK)

BONDI: There's a lot more that will come out. But under the four corners of the indictment, yes, he did. They had an operation called Operation Pull-Up.

They said they were gearing for a resistance. They met in a parking lot and they caravaned to a church on a Sunday morning when people were worshiping together.

JORDAN: And Mr. Lemon said that he livestreamed before entering the church with the rioters. Didn't he say we're going to head to the operation? Didn't he say this on -- he said this on camera. Is that right?

BONDI: Yes, Chairman, and more.

JORDAN: Yes, that he was in Minnesota and that, as you said, they were gearing up for an operation.

So you -- again, you can't do that. This is why this is I think so important that this guy be held accountable and I think why you guys have charged him and indicted him.

Moving to the second subject here, will John Brennan be indicted. Mr. Brennan lied to the committee, which you are not supposed to do. Last Congress, when we deposed him, he definitely -- 18-USC-1001. We're all familiar with it. He lied to the committee. And the committee, the Congress and I think the country would like to know if in fact he's going to be indicted for lying.

And here's why it's so important. I will give you a chance to respond. Here's why it's so important. It wasn't just that he lied to us. It's what he lied to us about. He lied to us about when all this weaponization against the president of the United States started, he lied to us about the dossier and specifically what role the dossier played in the intelligence community assessment.

Because we know, back when President Trump was first elected first term, this is when it all started, which led to the Mueller and to the impeachment and to the Jack Smith and all the stuff that's happened in the last decade. But it began here, and he lied to Congress about the role he played.

And I just want to read a couple of things he said during that deposition before I give you a chance to respond.

Mr. Brennan when asked the question said the CIA was not involved at all with the dossier. He said it was their purview, FBI's purview and not ours. He also said the CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the intelligence community assessment.

That's interesting, because declassified -- information that was declassified this past summer by the CIA says something entirely different. It says Brennan -- and I want to put this one up if we have it.

It says Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing stating that -- quote -- this is released by the CIA director, Ratcliffe. "My bottom line is that what I believe that that information warrants inclusion in the report." He was further asked by an I.C. -- CIA official.

The same officer said when he approached the director and asked -- and that the director refused to remove it after being explained this wasn't good, with the dossier's many false. He said, yes, but doesn't it ring true?

So this is John Brennan using that document to change intelligence community assessment, which I think led to all the stuff we have seen over the last decade. And I think this committee and the country, Congress and the country -- excuse me -- like to know if Mr. Brennan is going to be indicted.

[11:25:13]

BONDI: What I can confirm is that we have received a referral from you, Chairman Jordan, to investigate John Brennan. His attorneys have made some public statements, but the department is still bound, of course, by our longstanding policy of not discussing matters.

What I will say today, I can't confirm nor deny whether there is a pending investigation, but what I will say is no one is above the law. Weaponization has ended.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Point of order, Mr. Chairman.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, another lively exchange, and we're going to continue to monitor this very important hearing.

Much more coming up right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)