Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi tore into Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, accusing him of stonewalling efforts to release flight logs related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The exchange reignited after Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, a vocal advocate for transparency in the Epstein case, brought up the repeated blocking of subpoenas for the logs. Both Bondi and Blackburn asserted that Durbin had been a key obstacle, despite his denials—denials contradicted by committee records.
Durbin dismissed the claims, insisting he had not resisted Republican efforts to obtain the logs or other related documents. But Bondi didn’t let up.
“I find it very interesting that you refused repeated Republican requests to release the Epstein flight log in 2023 and 2024—you fought that,” Bondi said. “Did you take money from Reid Hoffman campaign donations?”
Durbin denied taking money directly from Hoffman, the tech billionaire and Epstein associate. However, Hoffman has contributed millions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which supports top Senate Democrats—Durbin among them.
Bondi pressed again: “Why did you fight to not disclose the flight logs, Senator Durbin?”
Durbin pushed back, claiming he never opposed the subpoena. “I asked you if you wanted any documents like flight logs to put it in writing. You never did,” he said.
Blackburn quickly interjected: “Yes, sir, I did. And your staff knows that I did. We’ll submit the request again—as we have several times. But we’ll be happy to send it to you once more. I think your staff doesn’t show that to you.”
Bondi opened her testimony with a sweeping rebuke of what she described as recent dishonesty from Democratic officials. She framed her appearance as an effort to restore integrity and transparency to the Justice Department.
“They are a critical reminder of our central mission here at the Department of Justice: protecting the safety and security of the American people,” Bondi said. “That is why, even when the government is otherwise shut down because of the Democrats, the department’s law enforcement officers and prosecutors are hard at work—fighting crime, keeping our streets safe, and protecting you from threats, foreign and domestic.”
Bondi went on to criticize the politicization of law enforcement and alleged abuses of power during previous administrations.
“When I was confirmed as the 87th attorney general of the United States, I took office with two main goals: to end the weaponization of justice and return the department to its core mission—fighting violent crime,” she said. “We learned that former FBI officials secretly investigated you and your colleagues because they wanted to take President Trump off the playing field. They were playing politics with law enforcement powers.”
Bondi called that conduct “a historic betrayal of public trust,” and said it’s the kind of behavior that “shatters the American people’s faith in our law enforcement system.”
“We’re returning to our core mission of fighting real crime,” she continued. “While there’s more work to do, I believe that in just eight short months we’ve made tremendous progress.”
She cited federal law enforcement surges in Washington, D.C., and Memphis as examples of effective DOJ partnerships with local officials, calling the results “clear and measurable.”
Bondi closed by defending the department’s track record in court:
“Despite the unprecedented level of activism we’ve seen from the lower courts, we have never ignored a court order—nor would we. We’ve secured 22 victories at the Supreme Court alone, with more to come. Our civil rights attorneys are fighting discrimination and antisemitism, our criminal attorneys are prosecuting violent criminals and foreign terrorists every single day.”
“I look forward to continuing this work at the Department of Justice, and to testifying before you today,” she concluded.
