After Pam Bondi turned U.S. legal professional normal final yr, conservative influencers, on-line sleuths and others who needed the federal government to reveal all it knew about Jeffrey Epstein thought they may have a champion within the Division of Justice.
So did Jess Michaels, one of many legions of girls who’ve stated they have been sexually assaulted by the late financier and convicted intercourse offender with a roster of highly effective buddies in enterprise, politics and past.
“I assumed, ‘Effectively, perhaps a lady entering into this position will lastly, lastly get the reality,’” Michaels recalled Thursday, after President Donald Trump introduced Bondi was out of the nation’s high regulation enforcement job.
“She had this chance to be a hero and to actually do proper by survivors of sexual violence and trafficking,” Michaels stated, “and he or she selected to not.”
The furor over the “Epstein information,” because the trove of investigative information got here to be identified, wasn’t the one controversy of Bondi’s tenure. However the arc — first elevating expectations for a giant reveal, then declaring there was nothing to see, and in the end a pressured, flawed doc dump — was a stubbornly problematic storyline that ran by her time as legal professional normal.
Bondi rejected criticism of her dealing with of the matter, and Trump on Thursday praised her as “a Nice American Patriot and a loyal buddy.”
Michaels and different Epstein victims watched all of it with shaken belief that Bondi’s departure alone will not seemingly rebuild.
“This isn’t a couple of single particular person,” accuser Annie Farmer stated Thursday. “It’s a couple of authorities and judicial system that has repeatedly failed Epstein survivors.”
This is a look at Bondi’s half within the Epstein saga:
February 2025: The binders
Freshly confirmed as legal professional normal for a president who had prompt on the marketing campaign path that he’d open extra authorities paperwork on Epstein, Bondi whetted appetites by declaring on Fox Information that “you’re going to see some Epstein data launched.” And when a number requested about “releasing “the listing of Jeffrey Epstein’s purchasers” — a long-rumored, never-seen intercourse trafficking roster — she replied that it was “sitting on my desk proper now.”
A day later, conservative commentators and content material creators have been delivered to the White Home to get DOJ binders emblazoned with “The Epstein Recordsdata: Part 1” and “Declassified.”
The try to showcase transparency quickly backfired, as soon as it emerged that the contents largely have been already public. Bondi demanded that the FBI give her “the complete and full Epstein information,” and he or she later stated that she’d unearthed a “truckload” of beforehand withheld materials and that “all the things goes to come back out to the general public.”
July 2025: The walkback
After months of anticipation, the Justice Division stated it would not launch any extra Epstein materials. A courtroom had sealed a lot of it to guard victims, and “solely a fraction” would have come out if Epstein had gone to trial, the company stated in an unsigned memo. It added that authorities hadn’t discovered proof that merited new costs or investigations and that “perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein” would not assist victims get justice.
And, it stated, there was no “consumer listing.” As for Bondi’s prior remark that it was on her desk, officers stated she had meant the general case file.
Conservative influencers, amongst others, blasted the turnabout and questioned Bondi’s functionality. However Trump stood by her, scolding a journalist for trying to ask her a query about Epstein at a White Home Cupboard assembly.
Trump had himself raised questions for some years after Epstein’s 2019 dying in jail because the financier confronted federal intercourse trafficking costs. After the Justice Division memo, nonetheless, the president prompt there was nothing extra to say about Epstein and the nation, together with his personal supporters, ought to merely transfer on.
November 2025: The laws
Amid a drumbeat of disclosures that start to precise penalties for some highly effective folks — notably Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Britain’s former Prince Andrew — Congress handed laws to pressure the Justice Division to reveal its investigative information on Epstein. Trump signed it into regulation, casting the hunt for Epstein data as a Democratic-led distraction from the Republican agenda.
In the meantime, at his urging, Bondi introduced that the U.S. legal professional in Manhattan would examine Epstein’s ties to a few of the Republican president’s political foes, together with Democratic former President Invoice Clinton. None has been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s accusers; nor has Trump, one other former Epstein buddy. Each Clinton and Trump have stated they knew nothing about Epstein’s misconduct and lower ties with him a few years in the past.
December 2025: The primary batch
On the statutory deadline for making the Epstein information public, the Justice Division launched solely a few of them. Whereas the information included some materials the general public hadn’t beforehand seen, together with some candid pictures of Clinton, the paperwork did not break main floor and included little about Trump.
The division stated it was persevering with to evaluate different Epstein information to make it possible for victims have been protected.
However Democrats cried cover-up, invoice sponsor Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., accused the Justice Division of breaking the regulation by lacking the deadline and redacting an excessive amount of, and a few Epstein accusers additionally questioned the intensive redactions.
January 2026: The large launch
The Justice Division started releasing an enormous cache of further Epstein paperwork, movies and pictures, although others remained below wraps.
The information pulled again a curtain on favor-trading and frank communications in a chummy elite that regarded previous Epstein’s 2008 responsible plea to solicitating prostitution from an underage woman in Florida. Some high-flying Epstein buddies resigned or misplaced jobs in company America, academia, large regulation companies, the British, Slovakian and Norwegian governments and past.
However the paperwork disclosed extremely private details about some victims whereas redacting the names of Epstein correspondents in, for instance, emails that appeared to discuss with the sexual abuse of underage women.
Gloria Allred, an legal professional for quite a few Epstein victims, stated Thursday that Bondi betrayed them by failing to guard private data within the information.
“She has destroyed the belief within the DOJ that victims had a proper to anticipate, and her termination often is the solely sort of justice that survivors will obtain from the DOJ,” Allred stated by e mail.
February 2026: The listening to
At a congressional listening to, a combative Bondi tried to quell the Epstein information controversy. She defended how the Justice Division handled it, lobbed private insults at Democrats and lauded Trump over, amongst different issues, the efficiency of the inventory market.
Bondi stated she was deeply sorry for what Epstein victims suffered. However she declined a request from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., to face and apologize to them for the Justice Division’s actions, and Bondi dismissed Massie’s critiques of the discharge of victims’ private data.
Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi clashed with Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) after she was requested to apologize to Jeffrey Epstein survivors throughout a Home Oversight listening to.
March 2026: The subpoena
The Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform subpoenaed Bondi to reply questions on April 14 in regards to the Justice Division’s dealing with of the Epstein investigation and file launch. With 5 Republicans becoming a member of Democrats to help the subpoena, it mirrored widespread discontent, together with within the GOP base, over Bondi’s administration of the matter.
The Republican-led committee voted to subpoena the legal professional normal after a movement to take action by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.
The longer term
For now, Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche would be the appearing legal professional normal.
Michaels, who traveled to the Capitol final yr to press for the information’ launch, needed Bondi gone. However will Blanche do higher?
“We will solely hope. However on condition that they labored collectively, I don’t have nice expectations,” she stated.
The Related Press typically doesn’t establish individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Michaels has completed.
Robert Glassman, an legal professional for a girl who testified as “Jane” within the 2021 legal trial of Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, famous that company leaders come and go.
“For victims of sexual abuse, what issues is whether or not the establishments meant to guard them truly do their job,” he stated.
