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Attorney General Pam Bondi has been at the center of a MAGA meltdown this week, after a much-hyped release of documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein amounted to an embarrassing dud last Thursday.
Bondi’s recent and highly anticipated release of documents related to deceased child molester (and former associate of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and others) Jeffrey Epstein was widely panned after the release was found to include a slew of redacted documents that contained information that had already been made public. According to multiple sources that spoke to ABC News, Bondi reportedly surprised White House officials during an influencer event at the White House by passing out white binders with Epstein documents — that included no new information.
The backlash from right-wingers included Trump ally Laura Loomer calling on Bondi to resign. Other conservatives, like bigoted conspiratorial podcast host Joe Rogan, pro-Trump influencer Steve Bannon and Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina-Luna, have publicly raged at Bondi, as well.
Bondi appears to be serving two masters when it comes to her handling of Epstein-related material. Many of the MAGA faithful have demanded the release of as many unredacted Epstein documents as possible. But Trump, meanwhile, hedged last year when asked whether the Epstein documents should be released, initially answering “yes” before telling Fox News, “I think that less so because, you don’t know, you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.”
After the MAGA meltdown over last week’s disappointing stunt, Bondi seemed to be prepping to release more documents. She told Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this week that she had received a “truckload” of additional documents from the Southern District of New York on Friday after a “source” tipped her off. The AG claimed she’d been misled ahead of the initial release and that the FBI would release the additional tranche of documents after applying the necessary redactions.
Given the way the first document dump played out and the wave of disappointment that met the attorney general for failing to satisfy Trump supporters, one might think Bondi would want to temper expectations a little bit.