The Justice Department told reporters it yanked a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from its Epstein database as part of a routine nudity review. However, former Attorney General Pam Bondi was revealed to have offered Congress a different explanation entirely: that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's staff believed the image was AI-generated rather than real.
"I do believe that Deputy Attorney General Blanche or his staff believed that this was AI for some reason and not real," Bondi said in a May 29 closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, according to a transcript released Thursday. "It was taken down, but it was put back up … because it was confirmed that it was Howard Lutnick and his family."
The photo — released Jan. 31 under file number EFTA01230639 and later authenticated by CBS News — shows Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein standing at an oceanside cliff on Little Saint James, Epstein's private Caribbean island, alongside three other men.
After the image vanished from Justice.gov, DOJ spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre told CBS the photo "was part of a batch of files that were flagged for nudity." The image contained no nudity. DOJ restored the photo within hours of CBS publishing its report.
Bondi said she had "no direct or indirect knowledge" that the photo was pulled for political reasons.
When the disappearance surfaced in February, lawmakers demanded answers. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) called on the DOJ to "tell Congress who pulled this file down so we can ask them."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) went further in an X post directed at Bondi: "Why are you covering up this picture of Epstein's friend Lutnick?"
Lutnick has since faced two congressional panels. In a February hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, he acknowledged the visit but framed it as a brief family vacation stop. "My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies," he testified. House Oversight Democrats have since accused him of dishonesty and called for his resignation.