BREAKING:Jasmine Crockett bashes Pam Bondi over Epstein files, questions Trump ties at congressional hearing

Dallas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was one of several lawmakers who chastised Attorney General Pam Bondi for her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case files Wednesday during a fierce committee hearing on Capitol Hill.

Crockett, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, accused Bondi of protecting pedophiles and complying with a cover up in light of the Department of Justice’s stalled release of the files, which begin to illustrate Epstein’s network of powerful figures, including President Donald Trump. Trump remains at the center of steady speculation over his ties to Epstein, the sex offender accused of sexually abusing young girls, and Crockett took aim at their relationship as Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

“Now I’m not saying that the president is a pedophile, but there is a lot of evidence in these files that suggests that he’s very close friends with a lot of men who are pedophiles,” Crockett said at the hearing.

The White House, Department of Justice and Crockett’s office did not immediately return requests for comment.

What did Jasmine Crockett say during the House Judiciary Committee hearing?

Crockett said Trump is one of the most named people in the Epstein files, appearing in at least 5,000 documents with more than 38,000 references to him, his wife or his Mar-a-Lago resort. She referenced one file indicating that Trump spent more than 20 minutes flirting with a young girl whom Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, presented to him. And she pointed to another where Epstein brought a victim to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago, bragging that “this is a good one.”

Crockett said Bondi would “be remembered as one of the worst attorneys general in history” and bashed her over other Department of Justice cases, including those involving the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election ballots from Fulton County, Ga.

What did Pam Bondi say?

Bondi responded after Crockett yielded the rest of her time and suggested she was trying to distract from crime happening in Texas. She held up photos of several convicted inmates, naming foreign countries for each and reading crimes that included homicide, kidnapping and rape.

“Convicted, so what we talking about?” Crockett interjected. “Convict some of these perpetrators that raped these women that are sitting behind you that you refuse to even acknowledge they are here.”

Bondi finished reading the crimes of the three inmates she presented.

“That’s why they want to talk about Epstein and not what’s happening in their own states,” Bondi said.

What has Trump said about the Epstein files?

Trump said he ended his friendship with Epstein and tossed him out of his private club in Florida because Epstein hired people who worked for Trump, according to the Associated Press. Those comments came after White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said Trump booted Epstein from the club “for being a creep,” AP reported.

The president has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and has not been formally accused of any crimes. He said the most recently released Epstein files absolved him.

“It’s the opposite of what people were hoping, you know, the radical left,” Trump told reporters in footage posted by CBS News.

Bondi says she didn’t know Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred to Texas

The Epstein case has also found its way to Texas via Maxwell, who was transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan last year. She has sought clemency from Trump, and her attorney said she would come to Trump’s defense in exchange.

U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., demanded her removal from the Bryan prison during Wednesday’s congressional hearing because of the perks she receives there. The House Judiciary Committee’s Democrats have alleged Maxwell has received custom meals, a private meeting with visitors, snacks, drinks and time with a service dog in training at the Texas prison.

“She should not be in that prison, and she needs to be moved back to a maximum security prison as soon as possible,” Ross said.

When asked by Ross, Bondi said Maxwell does not deserve special privileges in prison and added that she was unaware Maxwell was being transferred.