US Attorney General Pam Bondi missed a summit on human trafficking on Wednesday, citing a medical issue, as new reports intensified pressure on President Donald Trump over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi's absence from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Washington, D.C., was announced shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported that she had informed Trump in May that his name appears multiple times in the Justice Department's files on the late sex offender.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti read a statement from Bondi to the audience, explaining that she was recovering from a torn cornea and unable to attend. Trump is already suing the Journal over a separate story alleging he sent a handwritten birthday card to Epstein. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed the latest report as a continuation of "fake news stories" from Democrats and the liberal media.
The scandal erupted on July 7 when the FBI and Justice Department abruptly announced that no Epstein "client list" existed and that the financier died by suicide in 2019. This angered Trump supporters, who expected accountability for the sex trafficker's associates. The ensuing weeks have seen infighting among Trump's MAGA coalition, with Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Director Dan Bongino accused of orchestrating a cover-up.
Criticism has come from right-wing influencers like podcaster Liz Wheeler, who attended a White House event in February to receive binders of already-public Epstein documents. She accused Bondi of "gross incompetence" and called for Trump to dismiss her. Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh also attacked Bondi on social media, labelling her as Trump's personal lawyer and warning of long-term damage to American trust. Meanwhile, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said Bondi and Trump have "lied to the American people, destroying trust in our justice system."
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee moved to subpoena both the Epstein files and Ghislaine Maxwell, his jailed accomplice. Federal judges in New York and Florida rejected requests to unseal grand jury transcripts related to investigations into the duo, further fuelling the controversy.
