Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) shed more light on former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s much-anticipated hearing with the House Oversight Committee on Friday, claiming she was “combative throughout” while also defending not meeting with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.
“She said that it made no sense to meet with the survivors for some reason. ‘It wouldn’t be appropriate,’ was the word she used,” Subramanyam told CNN’s Boris Sanchez.
Subramanyam added that the former AG said she “didn’t seem to have any awareness of the survivors reaching out to her wanting to meet, or reaching out to her about wanting their own files, their own statements that they made to the DOJ.”
Bondi, who has been a private citizen since being ousted from her position at the DOJ in April, appeared on Capitol Hill Friday following a bipartisan subpoena issued by the Oversight Committee. Her interview came under fire, as critics argued that it should have been a sworn, videotaped deposition instead.
“We didn’t even want her at a hearing because we saw what she did with the Judiciary Committee,” Subramanyam said. “But the reality is the oversight Republicans continue to want the witnesses from the administration to be in the best situation possible, not having to answer certain questions, not being on tape, for instance.”
The lawmaker noted that Bondi “also seemed very uncomfortable with her questions.”
Some displeased survivors also appeared in the nation’s capital to voice their frustrations with Bondi, including Dani Bensky, who claimed that “so far the DOJ has done everything they possibly can to intimidate survivors.”
Bondi had struck another nerve with the survivors during a hearing in February following the DOJ’s botched release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which redacted a majority of the convicted sex offender’s alleged co-conspirators, but named some of the survivors.
At the time, Bondi refused to apologize or even acknowledge any of the survivors standing behind her when urged to by Democratic lawmakers.
“So they were in the room with her standing, and she said that she didn’t think it was appropriate for them to meet, that she wasn’t aware of their efforts?” Sanchez asked.
“At one point, she said … she didn’t think it was appropriate to meet with survivors,” Subramanyam said. “At another point, she seemed not to recall their outreach to her office, and she didn’t seem to recall a lot of things, even things that happened very recently.”