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Pam Bondi Testifies on Capitol Hill Amid Multiple Controversies. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 11, 2026 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
REP. HARRIET HAGEMAN, (R-WY): -- administration don't currently have at their disposal that would be helpful in that effort that Congress could adopt?
PAM BONDI, UNITED STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, we work with multiple agencies throughout the administration, but I'd be happy to talk to you about that more. Yes
HAGEMAN: Wonderful, thank you. I appreciate your effort in this regard.
BONDI: And may I have 20s of your time before --
HAGEMAN: Yes, please.
BONDI: -- to address something?
HAGEMAN: Yes.
BONDI: Thank you. Your colleague, Senator Neguse didn't want to talk about crypto because he said I was a disgrace talking about crypto because he didn't want to talk about the tremendous crime in his jurisdiction. He voted no on preventing violence against women by illegal aliens. Yet, on June 1, 2025, Mohamed Soliman attacked members of the group run for their lives in Boulder, Colorado where an 82- year-old woman sustained burns on over half of her body and eventually died from her injuries.
HAGEMAN: I believe that she was a Holocaust survivor.
BONDI: She was.
REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OH) CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The time of the gentlelady is expired.
HAGEMEN: OK. I yield back.
JORDAN: Gentlelady yields back and the gentlelady from Georgia is recognized.
REP. LUCY MCBATH, (D-GA): Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Bondi, as the Florida Attorney General, attorneys from your office handled the appeal of my son, Jordan Davis' murder, which was denied. As a result of the efforts of those attorneys under your watch, the court actually upheld the life sentence for a man who used prejudice as his defense for murdering my son and scarring his friends for life.
Attorneys from your office under your management worked hard to remove a dangerous man from the community, who terrorized innocent people like my son and his friends. The compassion and respect that my family received throughout that ordeal were critical in helping us keep faith in the rule of law and justice.
Based on my experiences, I have seen how strong victim services, sustained investigations and well-supported prosecutors can make a meaningful difference in the lives of families who are grieving and suffering.
Ms. Bondi, just yes or no, would you agree that government officials should be respectful and supportive of victims' families as they mourn?
BONDI: First Congresswoman, thank you for talking about that and I'm so very sorry for what happened to your family.
MCBATH: Thank you.
BONDI: And yes, I agree with that with all victims, including the ones sitting behind us today. I absolutely do. And also, thank you for voting yes on the Laken Riley Act. Thank you for that.
MCBATH: Thank you. OK. So, your answer is why the recent treatment of families in Minnesota raises really serious concerns for me because shortly after Mr. Alex Pretti was murdered, administration officials referred to him as an assassin and called Mr. Pretti the definition of domestic terrorism. They also lied about Mr. Pretti holding a gun and threatening officers.
After Ms. Renee Good was murdered by ICE officials in Minneapolis, administration officials also accused her of being a domestic terrorist and investigated her wife in a clear act of retaliation. The statement Mr. Pretti's mother made after the murder resonated with me more than you'll ever imagine She said that and I'm quoting, "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting."
And I assure you I know how it feels to hear lies that are told to justify the taking of someone's son. They were used by my son's murderer as a defense and those lies still affect me today. He was called a thug and he was called a gangbanger, and the attorneys from your office actually defended my son's name, his memory and defended his honor.
I'm certain that Mr. Pretti's mother watched videos of her son, Alex, and IC Nurse at the V.A. Hospital, using his phone to record federal agents. She also watched him getting pepper-sprayed, kicked, hit in the head and surrounded by at least seven agents before having his gun removed from his waistband, which he legally carried. And She watched seconds later as two of those agents shot her son, Alex, at least ten times. Administration was quick to spew an incorrect narrative and call him so many things that they wanted us to ignore the truth that we actually saw with our own eyes. Ms. Bondi, will you denounce the statements that were made to tarnish the names of Alex Pretti and Renee good? And will you protect their names like those attorneys back in Florida under your watch protected my son's name?
[13:35:00]
BONDI: What I will say is we are looking at everything to shed light on what happened that day and it is an ongoing and active investigation, both of those cases, and I assure you they will be investigated.
MCBATH: Investigating, we understand that, but will you do everything in your power, as you have done for my case, as you are asked to do as you've sworn an oath to do? It is your responsibility to make sure that you are following the rule of law. Those families in Minnesota, they deserve the same respect. They deserve a full investigation, which you have not even begun to do yet. So, what are you saying is that they don't deserve any respect for a full investigation into their murders?
BONDI: Well, that is not --
MCBATH: That is incompetence on your behalf.
BONDI: Without (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
MCBATH: American people do deserve better. Non-commitment to defending the rule of law is what we see from you.
(CROSSTALK)
BONDI: I told you we are investigating.
MCBATH: I will always stand up for survivors and I heard you say earlier, when you told us that you will fight for them as well. And based on the information before us, these families have not received the same commitment to investigate what happened to their loved ones, nor have they received the respect that I would expect from the nation's top law enforcement officer. Investigations have been slow- walked. They've been canceled. And the special agent assigned to Renee Good's investigation resigned following pressure from your officials to reclassify Mr. Good's case.
JORDAN: Time of the gentlelady --
MCBATH: For families seeking answers and accountability, the withdrawal of investigative resources is simply unacceptable.
JORDAN: Time of the gentlelady has expired. The gentlelady yields back. The gentleman from California is recognized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank You, Mr. Chairman. Madam Attorney General, I get the sense of --
(CROSSTALK)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A rather unique and extraordinary moment in this testimony because you had Lucy McBath of Florida actually complimenting Pam Bondi for her work when she was Attorney General of Florida for how her office handled the prosecution of her -- of the man who murdered her son, Jordan Davis, back in 2014. And then sort of using that as an example and for what she suffered doing that, she said that her son was called a thug. She said the lies about him still affect her today. She used that to question Pam Bondi about what's been happening in Minnesota.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, explaining that the families of Alex Pretti and Renee Good have endured enormous stress, not only because of the incidents that took their lives, but also because of the way that the administration has been describing Renee Good and Alex Pretti and she specifically cited efforts to investigate the wife of Good and the labeling of Alex Pretti as a domestic terrorist.
She asked the attorney general if she would denounce those claims. The attorney general shying away from doing that, essentially, saying that there is an open investigation that is ongoing. The congresswoman from Georgia there saying that, that investigation she believes has not yet begun in earnest.
We're going to take a quick break and continue monitoring this Oversight Hearing of DOJ on Capitol Hill. We'll bring you the latest as we get it. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:42:29]
SANCHEZ: Let's go right back to Capitol Hill, where Attorney General Pam Bondi is being grilled by members of the House Judiciary Committee, a contentious hearing so far. Let's listen.
MCBATH: -- try to investigate ICE officer in shooting resigns.
JORDAN: Without objection.
MCBATH: Thank you.
JORDAN: The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from North Carolina.
REP. DEBORAH ROSS, (D-NC): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Attorney General Bondi, I think you and pretty much everybody else here, and throughout the country, believes that convicted sex offenders don't deserve special treatment or privileges in prison. And yet Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, received perk after perk in prison. In July, she had a two-day interview with your deputy and President Trump's former Defense Attorney, Todd Blanche.
Just days after that, Maxwell was transferred from a federal correctional institution in Florida to a minimum security camp in Texas which she, as a sex offender, would normally be ineligible for. At this new facility, as the Ranking Member talked about, and by the way, it's nicknamed Club Fed.
We've heard reports that she's been afforded special privileges, puppy time, private workouts, personal mail, secretarial services. Attorney General Bondi, does a convicted sex offender like Ghislaine Maxwell deserve special treatment and privileges in prison? Yes or no?
BONDI: Let me be crystal clear on this. No.
ROSS: Thank you. Perfect.
(CROSSTALK)
BONDI: No, let me keep going.
ROSS: Perfect. I do have a few more questions.
BONDI: I did not know she was being transferred.
ROSS: I asked you yes or no.
BONDI: And she was not transferred to a lower level --
REP. JAMIE RASKIN, (D-MD) RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Mr. Chairman, please stop the clock and remind the witness of the rules. One rule she needs to understand here.
ROSS: And I'm glad that we're agreeing. So when we're agreeing, we can move on to some other things.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSS: But I want you to know that every time she does get these perks, and it's been publicly reported, that her -- the folks she has abused, the survivors who are sitting here, they see themselves as being denied justice. They feel re-traumatized. And I'm glad that we agree on that. But she should not be in that prison. And she needs to be moved back to a maximum security prison as soon as possible.
But what she has told another committee here is that she won't cooperate with them unless she gets clemency from Donald Trump.
[13:45:00]
It's just crazy to consider that she can be wielding this kind of influence within the administration. But that begs the question, who ordered her to be transferred to the minimum security prison that she was ineligible for? Who signed off on the special privileges? Was it Mr. Blanche? Was it one of your other subordinates? So, please, can you tell us who sent her there, since you don't agree she should be there?
BONDI: I said I do not agree she should receive special treatment. She was transferred, I learned after the fact, to the same level facility, and that is a question for the Bureau of Prisons. I was not involved in that at all. The same level facility, I don't know why. But, you know, instead of talking about Ghislaine Maxwell, who hopefully will die in prison -- hopefully will die in prison, you should be talking about Iryna Zarutska --
ROSS: I have a couple of other questions.
BONDI: -- who died on a subway.
ROSS: Right, and I absolutely --
BONDI: You don't talk about that.
ROSS: I have been talking about it and actually helping with these issues. But we're going to move back to you.
BONDI: I bet we are.
ROSS: Yes, of course, because you're here to testify. That's what the whole point of this endeavor is. So, of course, we're moving back to you. It is all about you.
So, as we've heard, she took the Fifth in response to every single question in that Committee hearing. And her lawyer dangled the offer of clemency. Should Donald Trump pardon or commute her sentence? Should she be released from prison, yes or no? You said you hope she dies there, so I'm hoping the answer is no.
BONDI: I already answered that question.
ROSS: Good. I'm very glad. I really like this bipartisan agreement about what should happen --
BONDI: But (inaudible) you.
ROSS: Yes.
BONDI: But you don't want to talk about Iryna Zarutska. You don't want to talk about murdered by a violent crime.
ROSS: I talk about her all the time, but I am not here to testify before Congress. You are. That is your job today. That's what you're getting (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
BONDI: You are obsessed with attack --
(CROSSTALK)
JORDAN: Time belongs to the gentlelady.
ROSS: So, I want you to know that your own DOJ employee, he's recently been demoted and had some other problems, advises on pardons. Do you think he will be advising Mr. Trump on any kind of clemency or pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell? BONDI: I'm not going to speculate, and you couldn't even identify properly. That's why you don't want to talk about Iryna Zarutska. You couldn't properly identify her relative.
ROSS: I absolutely --
BONDI: It's embarrassing.
ROSS: -- have been -- and her family, by the way, appreciates all of the condolences, all of the help, everything that our law enforcement in North Carolina has been doing to help her family. Her family feels well-treated.
Thank you and I yield back.
JORDAN: The gentlelady yields back. Gentleman from California is recognized.
REP. TOM MCCLINTOCK, (R-CA): I'd ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article by former Attorney General, William P. Barr entitled, "Why Pam Bondi Didn't Publish All the Epstein Files in 30 Days? The answer is simple. It was not possible" from the Wall Street Journal.
JORDAN: Well said. Without objection. The gentlelady from Florida is recognized.
REP. LAUREL LEE, (R-FL): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
BONDI: Madam -- I'm sorry.
LEE: Yes.
BONDI: May I respond 20 seconds to something that Congresswoman Ross said?
LEE: Go right ahead.
BONDI: Thank you. She also opposed a sex offender registry as Head of North Carolina ACLU. Thank you.
LEE: Thank you, Madam Attorney General. And I'd like to pick up where you left off a moment ago, because we convene here today as a Committee for the stated purpose of conducting oversight of the Department of Justice. And so, it's critical for us to focus first on the mission of the department and assess your success in discharging it.
So the mission of the department is to enforce federal law, defend the rule of law, and protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and exploitation, to promote public safety. And what we have heard today unequivocally is that President Trump's Department of Justice, under your leadership, Attorney General Bondi, is doing exactly that.
Just a moment ago, you shared with us some incredible statistics that the United States, under your leadership, has achieved the lowest murder rate in 125 years. That in the first year of this administration, murder is down 21 percent, robbery is down 23 percent, carjacking down 43 percent, and gun assault down 22 percent. That is what public safety looks like.
Under your leadership and that of President Trump, you've located more than 6,000 child victims of trafficking and exploitation, arrested 1,700 child predators and apprehended more than 300 human traffickers, significant increases. And those aren't just statistics.
[13:50:00]
Those are precious lives that your department and the men and women of federal law enforcement have saved. Madam Attorney General, you've mentioned a couple of specific criminal trends during this hearing that I'd like to discuss with you further because one of our important roles in Congress is making sure that our laws and our law enforcement stay ahead of predators as technology evolves.
I lead legislation in the House, along with bipartisan co-sponsors on this Committee, to make sextortion a clearly defined criminal offense. We actually passed that out of the House of Representatives. We have a bill to promote Operation Renewed Hope to help rescue more child victims, and the DEFIANCE Act to provide legal recourse to victims of deepfake A.I. intimate images. I would love to hear your perspective and what you are seeing related to these technology-based criminal trends, sextortion and A.I. deepfakes.
What are you seeing at the Department of Justice, and why do you believe that efforts to combat these types of crimes are important?
BONDI: Sextortion -- and thank you for supporting that, Congresswoman. I think that was a bipartisan effort, actually. I think many of you on both sides of the aisle supported that.
Thank you for that. You know, as a career prosecutor, it's horrible seeing that and seeing that young women and often young boys have been exploited with sextortion. And I see, thank you, both sides of the aisle nodding on that. It's horrific.
The suicide rates go up, and that's why we have to do everything in our power to protect not only young girls, adult women, boys and men from sextortion, because it is happening and we're doing everything in our power, thanks to your legislation, all of you, to stop that.
LEE: I'd like to hear a little bit more about some of the Department of Justice programs, like Project Safe Childhood and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force's partnerships that bring together federal, state and local law enforcement. Sometimes the work between those law enforcement groups together really creates some incredibly powerful outcomes and some great success stories.
I know you, as Florida's Attorney General, had a tremendous amount of leadership in our state, trying to make sure we were taking care of children, also the elderly, protecting them from fraud, ending drug trafficking. Tell us a little bit about some of those departments within DOJ.
BONDI: When you talked about Project Safe Neighborhoods, we've done a lot of that in Florida when I was state AG and actually back when I was a state prosecutor prior to being Attorney General. That is so important. I feel like what we've been doing in D.C. too, with the Take Back D.C. and Make D.C. Safe Again is similar to that.
Going into the neighborhoods, working with the community, seeing law enforcement officers out there playing basketball with kids who live in the neighborhood, it's pretty remarkable what we've seen firsthand.
Citizens in Memphis saying that they appreciate, they can walk outdoors now and they feel safe. People coming up thanking law enforcement and working hand-in-hand with them. We will continue all of these programs and working jointly with both sides of the aisle to keep our families safe.
LEE: Thank you for that, Madam Attorney General. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
JORDAN: The gentlelady yields back. Gentleman from Tennessee is recognized.
REP. STEVE COHEN, (D-TN): Thank you. I'd like to introduce for the record a letter to Director Gabbard from Mr. Warner and Mr. Himes, and a letter of response from her to them about who invited her to Atlanta --
JORDAN: Yep.
COHEN: -- and a copy of the search warrant.
JORDAN: Without objection.
COHEN: And I'd also like to just make clear for the record, the reason people in Memphis weren't going out was because the ICE was on the ground and we were afraid we'd fall. But other than that, we go out all the time.
JORDAN: Gentlemen, without objection, there is unanimous consent. The gentlelady from Vermont is recognized.
REP. BECCA BALINT, (D) VICE RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Attorney General Bondi, according to your department, a child is sexually abused in the United States every nine minutes and the vast majority of survivors never get justice. And that's one of the reasons why I think the Epstein case has resonated so deeply with so many Americans. And the other reason, I think, is because it has revealed a two-tiered system of justice.
And the powerful are protected and the survivors rarely get any accountability. And the Epstein Files contain evidence of a multi-decade international criminal conspiracy involving some of the wealthiest and the most powerful people in the world.
[13:55:00]
There's evidence of financial crimes, political corruption, sex trafficking, and of course, horrible sexual abuse. And I want to remind everybody, this isn't a game. These are real people.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right, we're watching this hearing on Capitol Hill where lawmakers have been pressing Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, on Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer to a lower-security prison known for being kind of cushy and the privileges that she's gotten since being there.
Pam Bondi saying they'd need to ask the Bureau of Prisons, noting she is actually in charge of the Bureau of Prisons.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, she pushed away any responsibility for that transfer, saying that she knew nothing about it, this despite it happening months ago, and seemingly not having the impetus to go and find out more about why that transfer happened. She says she doesn't know.
We're going to take a quick break. We have more news after a few minutes. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
