Rep. Massie says he doesn’t have confidence in Bondi as attorney general

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said Sunday that he did not approve of how Attorney General Pam Bondi conducted herself over the Department of Justice’s release of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a combative hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

“I don’t think she did very well,” Massie told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “She came with a book full of insults, one for each congressperson. She obviously had one for me.”

Asked by Raddatz if he had confidence in Bondi, Massie said he didn’t think Bondi had confidence in herself.

“She wasn’t confident enough to engage in anything but name-calling in a hearing,” Massie said. “So no, I don’t have confidence in her. She hasn’t got any sort of accountability there at the DOJ.”

During Massie’s line of questioning in Wednesday’s hearing, Bondi said the congressman had “Trump derangement syndrome,” an attack President Donald Trump occasionally wages against those who criticize him.

At another point, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked the group of Epstein victims sitting behind Bondi to raise their hand if they have not been able to meet with Bondi’s Justice Department. All of the survivors present raised their hand. Bondi did not turn to look at those victims, even after Jayapal asked her to, calling it “theatrics.”

Massie called Bondi’s decision to not look at the survivors “cold” and said that he thought she was “afraid” to do so.

Wednesday’s hearing came after the Justice Department released over 3 million pages of files from the Epstein case. The release of the files has triggered a wave of criticism and resignations across the world. In the U.S., several powerful figures were named — but not accused of wrongdoing — in the latest file release.

Massie has accused the Justice Department of exposing victim identities in some cases while over-redacting powerful men and possible co-conspirators to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation in others.

“[Bondi] admitted that 40 minutes after I pointed out to the DOJ that they had over redacted some of the documents, they did unredact those documents,” Massie said. “It’s clear that their work is not done here yet.”

Shortly after the release of the files, the Justice Department allowed members of Congress to go in-person to view versions of the files with fewer redactions. Massie said he still was not satisfied.

“I know the DOJ wants to say they’re done with this document production. The problem is they’ve taken down documents before we were able to go over to the DOJ and look at the unredacted versions,” Massie said.

Massie, who mostly votes with Trump, said that he thought Merrick Garland, former President Joe Biden’s attorney general, performed better in terms of optics when he appeared before the committee.