U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett slammed the Trump administration for “protecting pedophiles and creeps” during a testy exchange with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Capitol Hill.
During a Wednesday hearing held by the U.S. Committee on the Judiciary, Crockett called out Bondi and the U.S. Department of Justice under her leadership over the agency’s botched release of the FBI files on Jeffrey Epstein, among other policy actions.
“The fact of the matter is that you will be remembered as one of the worst attorney generals in history; an attorney general who has prioritized obstruction over justice, corruption over the law, fealty to the president over loyalty to the Constitution,” said Crockett, who refused to use her allotted five minutes of committee questioning to ask Bondi questions because the AG “revealed that she has no intentions of answering questions.”
The Texas congresswoman, who is running for U.S. Senate in this year’s midterm election, used most of her time lambasting Bondi for the DOJ’s failure to redact the personal information of Epstein’s child sex trafficking survivors, yet redacted the names of rich and powerful men, some of whom are connected to President Donald Trump.
Crockett addressed the president’s “possible involvement” with Epstein, explaining that Trump is “one of the most named people in the Epstein files.”
“At least 5,000 files contain more than 38,000 references to Trump, his wife, or Mar-a-Lago,” she said. The always outspoken lawmaker also noted that Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, “made young girls available to Trump on multiple occasions.”
Crockett continued, “For example, according to this file, Ghislaine Maxwell presented a young girl to President Trump, who spent more than 20 minutes apparently flirting with her. Here’s another example. This shows notes from FBI investigators that describe Jeffrey Epstein transporting a victim to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Trump, where he bragged to Trump that, ‘This is a good one.'”
The congresswoman clarified that she is “not saying the president is a pedophile,” but rather acknowledging, “There is a lot of evidence in these files that suggests that he’s very close friends with a lot of men who are pedophiles.”
Crockett added, “What’s crazy about all of this is just that this is a big cover-up, and this administration is engaged in it. In fact, this administration is complicit.”
Though Crockett did not ask Bondi any questions directly, a Republican member allowed the attorney general a few moments to respond. AG Bondi used the time, as she did in fiery reactions to several Judiciary Committee Democrats, by broadcasting alleged criminals convicted in Crockett’s state of Texas.
“I find it interesting that she didn’t even want to try, Congresswoman Crockett, to ask any questions,” said Bondi. “This is what she didn’t want to talk about.”
Seemingly unfazed, Crockett interjected, saying, “Convicted. So what we talking about? Convict some of these perpetrators that raped these women that are sitting behind you, but you refuse to even acknowledge they are here?”
As Bondi continued to list off the alleged criminals from Texas, Crockett walked out of the hearing room.
