Attorney General Pam Bondi found herself at the center of a firestorm during a tense Senate hearing — one that later drew a stinging rebuke from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who mocked her arrogance and refusal to answer questions in a post that quickly went viral.
Bondi clashed with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, after he pressed her about President Donald Trump’s ties to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and whether the FBI uncovered compromising material connected to the disgraced financier.
“There’s been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. 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?” Whitehouse asked a hostile Bondi.
“You know Senator 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 confidence, I believe, I could be wrong, correct me, Reid Hoffman, who was with Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions,” Bondi snapped back at the senator.
But she wasn’t through.
“And the senator sitting right next to you [Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin], tried to block the flight logs from being released, yet you’re grilling me on President Trump and a photograph with Epstein,” she spat out referring to Hoffman, an entrepreneur and the co-founder of LinkedIn who knew Epstein.
But Whitehouse was undaunted.
“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? You don’t know anything about that?” Whitehouse asked.
Bondi just sat and stared at him.
“OK,” Whitehouse said moving on.
But Newsom did not move on.
“So much for the ‘most transparent’ administration,” Newsom posted on X above a clip of the hearing showing Bondi’s hostility over the questioning and her refusal to tell the truth.
“Pedophile-protector Pam is still refusing to answer questions — and still hiding the Epstein files,” Newsom quipped with an alliteration that makes the clapback easy to remember.
His post went viral and social media went wild over his new moniker for Bondi and her refusal to answer questions about the Epstein files.
Several approved of the nickname and callout as they made up their own,
“I think we can all agree to call @PamBondi the new PPP Loan 2.0.”
“Pam Bondi is a crook,” X user Jessica Rydill declared. This user had another to the list, “PEDO PAM.”
And another X user, “Complicit! Hold her accountable!” she declared.
Some viewers were eager for the time to come when Bondi and Trump’s administration will have to face the fire for their actions.
“What we saw wasn’t oversight, it was arrogance. In normal times she’d be chased out of office before sunrise. These aren’t normal times, so the response has to be bigger. We win it all. 2026 and 2028. Every Republican who cheers this rot gets retired. Adults only in the rebuild,” wrote one commentor.
Another declared, “Under the next administration, I can’t wait to see her on trial for all of her crimes.”
One assumed the files may containt something so scary that freightens both Bondi and Trump.
Given Pam Bondi’s horrified reaction to being asked if Trump’s photograph was in Epstein’s safe. We can safely assume that there’s some kind of blackmail material of Trump by Jeffrey Epstein. It would explain a great many things.
Bondi and the FBI closed the investigation into the Epstein files last spring, announcing the case was closed. That’s after Trump and Vice President JD Vance spent the 2024 presidential campaign demanding the release of the files.
The MAGA sphere went wild and is still demanding Bondi release the files.
Epstein, a disgraced financier, with some of the most famous friends on the planet, including Trump, killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, according to authorities.
Sen. Whitehouse, meanwhile, has denied accepting campaign contributions from Epstein’s friend and major Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.
