Pam Bondi dodges easy question about Trump and Epstein

What does Attorney General Pam Bondi have to hide about Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump?

On Tuesday, Bondi stonewalled and deflected straightforward questions from Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island during a Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee hearing, leaving the impression of someone with a lot to hide.

“There's been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women,” Whitehouse asked, referring to author Michael Wolff’s claims that Epstein showed off such photos of Trump. “Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein's safe or premises or otherwise? Have you seen any such thing?” 

“You know, Sen. Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks, once again trying to slander President Trump, left and right, when you're the one who was taking money from one of Epstein's closest confidants,” Bondi replied, likely referring to an unsubstantiated accusation that LinkedIn cofounder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman was an Epstein client.

“The question is, did the FBI find those photographs that have been discussed publicly by a witness who claimed Jeffrey Epstein showed them to him?” Whitehouse responded. “You don't know anything about that?”

“Weird,” Whitehouse told CNN later on Tuesday, “when an attorney general of the United States comes to the Judiciary Committee and makes false allegations about a senator rather than—I mean, demonstrably false allegations about a senator—rather than answer a pretty simple fact question: Is there a picture, or isn’t there?”

There is no publicly available evidence that Hoffman was involved in illegal activity with Epstein. According to a review of the Federal Election Commission records by The Daily Beast, Hoffman has never directly donated to Whitehouse’s campaign.