US Democrats walk out of Epstein briefing, claim ‘fake hearing’
Democratic lawmakers walked out of a closed-door briefing on Wednesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, accusing the Justice Department of staging a “fake hearing” over the handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking files.
Rep. Robert Garcia said he repeatedly asked Bondi to commit to following a subpoena requiring her to testify publicly under oath, but she refused each time. “This has been completely set up in a way that’s been irresponsible,” he said, News.Az reports, citing Turkish media.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari criticized the briefing’s format, closed-door, unrecorded, and without an oath, as not resembling a legitimate congressional hearing. Lawmakers were allowed only three minutes each to ask questions, with no opening statements from officials. “They just looked even more guilty of a cover-up,” Ansari added.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
The walkout reportedly escalated after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer allegedly made a derogatory remark toward a Democratic member who questioned whether he would enforce the subpoena against Bondi. Democrats left the meeting in protest. Comer later criticized the lawmakers, saying they “didn’t ask a single pertinent question.”
Epstein died in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. In 2008, he pleaded guilty in Florida to procuring a minor for prostitution—a deal critics have long called a “sweetheart deal.”
By Aysel Mammadzada
Similar news
