Raskin Blasts Bondi Over Alleged Epstein Cover-Up in Heated Hearing

“A Massive Epstein Cover-Up”: Raskin’s Explosive Allegations Against Pam Bondi and the Crisis of Credibility at the DOJ

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has long been considered the bedrock of American law and order, an institution whose sole client is the American people and whose mission is the impartial pursuit of justice. However, during a recent, high-intensity House Judiciary Committee hearing, that foundational image was shattered. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) delivered a blistering opening statement that accused Attorney General Pam Bondi of transforming the DOJ into a “Vendetta Factory” and orchestrating a “massive Epstein cover-up” that has left the legal community and the public in a state of shock.

The hearing was not merely a political debate; it was a visceral confrontation. Seated directly behind Bondi were hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s global sex trafficking ring. Their presence served as a silent, powerful indictment of the department’s recent actions, providing a somber backdrop to Raskin’s detailed catalog of alleged institutional failure and moral decay.

The Epstein “Cover-Up” and Victim Betrayal

The most staggering portion of Raskin’s testimony focused on the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files. According to Raskin, the department under Bondi’s leadership has acted with a “mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference, and jaded cruelty.”

Raskin alleged that while the DOJ moved to redact the names of abusers, enablers, and accomplices—ostensibly to spare them “embarrassment and disgrace”—it simultaneously failed to redact the names of over 1,000 victims. Many of these survivors had kept their torment private for decades, only to have their identities, images, and traumatic histories published on thousands of pages for the world to see.

“You ignored the law,” Raskin charged, pointing to the congressional order to protect victim identities. He argued that this performance “screams cover-up,” a sentiment echoed by the presence of the survivors in the room, whom Bondi has reportedly refused to meet.

The allegations of “coddling perpetrators” extended to Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker currently serving time. Raskin revealed that Maxwell was moved from a high-security facility to a minimum-security camp in Texas, where she has allegedly enjoyed “five-star treatment,” including catered meals, private gym time, and even access to a therapy puppy. This shift occurred, Raskin claimed, after Trump’s legal associate, Todd Blanche, spent nine hours with Maxwell to ensure she would say nothing “untoward” about the President.

The “Vendetta Factory” and the Purge of the DOJ

Beyond the Epstein case, Raskin detailed what he described as a “complete corruption” of the justice function. He alleged that the DOJ has been turned into an “instrument of revenge,” where prosecutions are “ordered up like pizza.”

The list of targets mentioned by Raskin is extensive, including political rivals like James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff, as well as members of the Federal Reserve and veterans in Congress. Raskin argued that Bondi has replaced career prosecutors with “counterfeit stooges” who robotically do the President’s bidding, leading to a mass exodus of serious legal talent from the department.

High-profile resignations were cited as evidence of this internal collapse. Danielle Sassoon, the original pick for Acting U.S. Attorney, reportedly refused to participate in “blatantly corrupt” schemes. Her top assistant, Hagan Scotton—an Iraqi war veteran and two-time Bronze Star recipient—promptly resigned, writing that he expected the office would eventually find “someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward” to file the department’s motions, but it would “never be me.”

A Crisis of Truth in the Courts

Perhaps the most damaging revelation was the reaction of the federal judiciary to the DOJ’s recent conduct. Raskin cited several instances where federal judges have excoriated the department’s lawyers for lying in court.

Chief Judge Boesberg in D.C. suggested the DOJ perpetrated a “fraud on the court,” while other judges found the government’s statements to be “inexplicably misleading,” “patently incredible,” and “so disingenuous that the court is left with little confidence that the government can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.”

This collapse of credibility has been further highlighted by the repeated rejection of the DOJ’s indictments by American grand juries. In a single week, grand juries in Virginia voted down indictments against Letitia James twice. Most recently, a grand jury rejected charges of “seditious conspiracy” against six members of Congress—all veterans—who had exercised their First Amendment rights to remind service members of their duty to refuse illegal orders.

The “Burn Book” and the Brink of Collapse

Raskin concluded his statement by urging Bondi to set aside what he called her “burn book”—a binder of personal smears allegedly used to attack members of Congress during oversight hearings. He emphasized that the quality of justice in America depends on the character of the government and pleaded for Bondi to “bring the Department of Justice back from the brink.”

As the hearing moved into its questioning phase, the atmosphere remained one of extreme tension. The survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s ring continued to watch from the gallery, a haunting reminder that behind the legal jargon and political maneuvering are real lives that have been shattered. For many watching the proceedings, the question is no longer just about political leaners; it is about whether the Department of Justice can ever again be “worthy of its name.”