Bondi Won't Confirm Brennan Indictment, but Says 'Weaponization Has Ended'

Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed that "weaponization has ended," when she was asked whether former President Barack Obama's CIA Director John Brennan might be indicted over the Russia investigation involving President Donald Trump.

When House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked whether Brennan would be indicted by Trump's Justice Department, Bondi declined to confirm or deny whether he was under investigation.

But, she added: "No one is above the law."

Brennan's lawyers disclosed in a letter made public in December that they have been informed Brennan is a target of an investigation in Florida. He has denied any wrongdoing.

"What I can confirm is that we have received a referral from you, Chairman Jordan, to investigate John Brennan," Bondi said in a fiery, partisan hearing Wednesday. "His attorneys have made some public statements, but the department is still bound, of course, by our long-standing policy of not discussing matters.

"What I will say today, I can't confirm nor deny whether there is a pending investigation. But what I will say is no one is above the law, Mr. Chairman: Weaponization has ended."

Bondi spent much of her testimony during Democrats' allotted time attempting to answer questions before lawmakers cut her off by saying, "reclaiming my time."

Democrats criticized Trump and Bondi over the Epstein files Congress required the Justice Department to release and pressed the department to expedite additional disclosures, arguing during the hearing that the rollout lacked sufficient vetting to protect witnesses.

Some Republicans had previously warned that releasing the Epstein files could risk exposing sensitive information in myriad appearances on Newsmax.

"You sit here and you attack the president, and I am not going to have it, and I am not going to put up with it," Bondi shouted during an extended speech that praised the president for a recently surging Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Wednesday marked the first time the attorney general appeared before Congress since a tumultuous hearing in October.

The hearing comes days after some lawmakers visited a DOJ office to look through unredacted versions of the files. As part of an arrangement with the DOJ, lawmakers were given access to the more than 3 million released files in a reading room with four computers and were allowed to take handwritten notes.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., used her time to highlight several emails released in the case files on Jeffrey Epstein that seem to refer to others being involved in the abuse of underage girls and asked Bondi whether she would open investigations.

"We will look and investigate any case, involving any victim," Bondi responded, adding, "We will look into anything."

Bondi accused Lofgren of filibustering her allotted time and criticized her for allegedly accepting donations from Reid Hoffman, a Democrat donor whose name appears multiple times in the released Epstein files.

Democrat lawmakers and members of the public are demanding follow-up investigations into a number of individuals who were connected to Epstein, but the FBI last year released a memo saying no one else would be charged.

An Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows investigators found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., sharply criticized Bondi over a haphazard redaction that withheld the names of "powerful predators" but exposed private and intimate details about victims and also included nude photographs.

"Your department has shown a pattern of redacting the names of powerful predators," reading from an email involving a withheld name and referencing a "torture video."

She asked victims of Epstein's abuse to raise their hands if they had been unable to meet with the Justice Department.

"For the record," Jayapal said, "every single survivor has raised their hand."

Jayapal asked Bondi if she would apologize to the victims, prompting a fiery back-and-forth with raised voices in which the attorney general demanded to know why the congresswoman had not asked her predecessor, Merrick Garland, the same question.

"I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman," Bondi said.

The attorney general's opening statement had addressed the victims of Epstein's abuse, saying she was "deeply sorry" for what they had suffered.

Bondi has been criticized by survivors of Epstein's abuse, including several who were in attendance at the committee hearing Wednesday, for failing to redact personal information, including nude photos, of victims in the release of over 3.5 million case files on Epstein.

Some Republicans had previously warned of that risk.

Bondi said the Justice Department has removed files when they were made aware that they included victims' information and that staff had tried to do "our very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation" mandating the release of the files.

"Any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated," she added.

She opened the hearing with a defense of how she's "keeping America safe."

"Crime is declining, this did not happen by accident," she said, pointing to declining rates of violent crimes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.