The moment that showed how low Team Trump can go

 There is no “right” thing to say to a woman who has survived rape and trafficking. The idea that there is a single phrase or some form of magic words to undo that level of pain or injustice is simply ridiculous.

No one knows that better than the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who have had to endure first the abuse itself, then a sustained and years-long effort to cover up its extent, and then the charade of their abuse being weaponised into a conspiratorial political fantasy. These victims don’t want platitudes, they want answers – and, to the extent that it’s possible, justice.

Attorney General Pam Bondi had a chance to offer at least some of those victims answers on Wednesday when she gave evidence in a public hearing to the House Judiciary Committee. Several of Epstein’s victims were in the room to hear Bondi in person. She could, if she chose to do so, look them in the eyes and address their questions.

Bondi had, after all, long presented herself as a champion of these women. When Donald Trump was campaigning to become president once again, Bondi was among his supporters, using Epstein as an election issue. Trump, with her help, she promised, would release everything and pursue justice.

Early in Trump’s presidency, Bondi even claimed to have Epstein’s “client list” sitting on her desk – only to disappoint by handing printed-out binders of previously released documents to a hand-picked group of Maga influencers.

Bondi and the Trump administration instead had to be forced by Congress to disclose the Epstein files, and are still – long after the legally mandated deadline has expired – in the process of releasing those documents. Victims and members of Congress alike want answers on these disclosures: why are they so late? What has been redacted? What action will Bondi take on what’s being revealed in the documents?

Bondi, though, did not turn up to give answers. She turned up to fight. Trump likes to see his officials fighting, especially if their ire is aimed at Democrats. Very quickly, Bondi settled into a pattern – she would essentially ignore any question she didn’t like entirely and instead launch into a vicious attack on Democrats, the questioner, her predecessor Merrick Garland, or any other target that took her fancy.

The result was often truly bizarre to watch. At one stage, Bondi answered a question at a hearing about justice for rape victims by reeling off statistics about how brilliantly the US stock market is performing. Why, she asked, was the committee not talking about that?

Bondi was clearly trying to show her contempt for her questioners here, but she revealed something larger: contempt for the American public, who care deeply about the Epstein story, and contempt for the victims sitting in the room behind her. What victim of sexual crimes has ever been comforted by hearing someone else’s stock portfolio is doing well?

The Attorney General continued to flail. She had no answers as to why her Department of Justice (DoJ) – which by law is required to redact only the names and photos of victims – had redacted the name of Les Wexner, the billionaire former Victoria’s Secret boss, from a report accusing him of involvement in a crime (he has denied all wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and his legal representative said he was viewed by the DoJ only as a source of information about the financier). She accused the congresswoman’s granddaughter of a Holocaust victim of antisemitism. She tried to talk about anything other than Epstein – rising deportations, falling crime, anything but the topic she was there to discuss.

All of these were low points in American public life, in which the Attorney General – the woman who is supposed to be the chief lawyer of the American people, not the personal lawyer of its president – treated Congress with disdain. But none of them was the worst thing that Bondi did on Wednesday.

That moment was a simple one. Bondi was in a room full of women failed by the justice system, time and again, under successive administrations. She was asked to apologise to those women present for one failing that definitely happened under her watch: her department’s failure to properly redact victims’ personal information.

She refused. Instead, she launched into another series of politicised attacks against Democrats. She was offered, on several occasions, more chances to turn around and address Epstein’s victims when she answered questions. She repeatedly declined to do so.

Few moments are quite so clear as these. At the hearings, Bondi had a choice to make: she could deliver the answers that Epstein’s victims and the American public deserved, or she could give the performance that Trump would enjoy.

Bondi chose Trump over Epstein’s victims. No wonder she couldn’t look them in the eyes.