Pam Bondi accused of 'chest-beating' a bogus victory: 'Peak of disingenuous'
Two analysts tore into Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday after a federal court in Florida reversed course on the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner joined progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen to discuss the latest development in the Epstein saga, which has plagued the Trump administration in recent months. Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith in Florida ordered the unsealing and release of grand jury transcripts from the 2005-2007 federal investigation into Epstein.
The ruling granted a Department of Justice motion to unseal the materials and modify prior protective orders, citing the recently enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act, which overrides federal grand jury secrecy rules. The Act, signed into law last month by President Donald Trump, requires the Justice Department to disclose unclassified records, documents, and investigative materials related to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell by Dec. 19.
The decision applies specifically to the Florida grand jury proceedings, separate from ongoing requests for New York case materials from Epstein's 2019 and Maxwell's 2021 trials.
Kirschner noted that Bondi previously made a "big show" about her efforts to get grand jury transcripts unsealed. After Congress passed the Epstein transparency legislation and Trump signed it into law, the Justice Department returned to the Florida court and argued that the materials must be disclosed publicly.
The judge found the new law overrules grand jury secrecy laws.
"Now, that sounds dramatic. However, here's the rest of the story," said Kirschner.
He stressed the materials in those transcripts were already publicly known, both for transcripts in New York and Florida.
"This is going to be a propaganda victory for Pam Bondi's DOJ," he said. "She'll beat her chest and say, 'You see? We're trying to be transparent even though she knows full well that the public will learn exactly nothing new based on the release of these transcripts."
Cohen noted Bondi already has all the files that were ordered to be released, and summed it up as the "peak of her being disingenuous."
"The fact that she is pretending it's a win that she is releasing documents that she herself could release today if she wanted to," said Cohen.
Kirschner later added that "this whole thing is nothing more than a game and you know some PR nonsense that Pam Bondi is playing."