One of President Donald Trump's most embattled Cabinet secretaries may have found a way to escape accountability for her role in helping the president avoid fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files, according to one analyst.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has found herself in the hot seat over her handling of the Epstein files release, Joe Perticone, national political reporter for The Bulwark, noted in a recent newsletter. Even though there appears to be a lot of evidence that Bondi broke the law by slow-walking the release, the political winds may prevent lawmakers from having the fortitude to pursue accountability until after the midterm, he argued.
Perticone pointed to a letter Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote to a federal judge asking for a special master to be appointed as evidence that lawmakers believe Bondi is in the wrong. However, they may not push much harder than writing a strongly worded letter, because it could hurt their respective party's chances in the midterms.
"Prior to their letter to Judge Engelmayer, Massie and Khanna mused about actions lawmakers could take against Bondi, including inherent contempt and even impeachment," Perticone wrote. "Quite a few House Republicans resisted pressures from the White House to back off the original discharge petition [to release the Epstein files]. However, going after a cabinet secretary in an election year might be too big a thing to ask of them."
Last year, Congress passed a law requiring all files to be released by December 19, 2025, a deadline that Bondi's Department of Justice steamrolled. Since then, DOJ has said it will need "weeks" to comb through an additional two million documents it magically found after the deadline passed.
Bondi's new escape hatch emerged at a time when Trump had privately raged to people in the White House that Bondi is a "weak and ineffective" Attorney General, according to reports. Trump said Bondi has not prosecuted his political enemies fast enough.