The Dictatorship
Pam Bondi’s Epstein interview appears to have been an exercise in evading accountability
Former U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi demonstrated Friday that she would rather the public believe the controversy surrounding the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files belongs to someone else now — perhaps acting Attorney General Todd Blanche or FBI Director Kash Patel.
It doesn’t.
Bondi owns every decision she made as attorney general. And before she was ousted by Trump in April, she ran a department that refused to meet with Epstein survivors, stalled disclosure demands and fought transparency even after Congress overwhelmingly ordered it.
Survivors can’t get a meeting but a GOP member of Congress gets the Situation Room. That tells us everything about the Justice Department’s priorities under Bondi’s leadership.
But the decision to refuse meetings with Epstein survivors and their attorneys stands out. Those survivors are women, many of whom were victimized as children, and they have spent years fighting a legal system and a political system that protected their abusers. They asked for a meeting. Bondi said no. She refused to even acknowledge their presence at her last congressional hearing.
Something else that stands out is a meeting Bondi’s Justice Department did make time for. Last November, Rep. Lauren Boebert was summoned to the White House Situation Room, a space usually reserved for matters of national security, where she was pressured not to support a discharge petition that would force a floor vote on disclosing the Epstein files. Think about that. Survivors can’t get a meeting but a GOP member of Congress gets the Situation Room.
That tells us everything about the Justice Department’s priorities under Bondi’s leadership.
Bondi once made accountability her brand. As Florida’s attorney general, she worked to cleara backlog of thousandsof untested rape kits. She stood with survivors. She vigorously fought human trafficking. And built a political identityaround it.
Then she came to Washington and began running interference for those who might be exposed by the Epstein files and thwarting survivors’ attempts for justice. Even Trump’s White House eventually soured on her handling of those files, with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly saying Bondi “whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,”according to Vanity Fair.
“First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.” Trump fired her in April amid growing frustration over her leadership and the department’s failure to follow through on its promises to release the files in a transparent manner.
The Epstein files problem didn’t leave with Bondi. Blanche, Bondi’s deputy, is the acting attorney general. Nothing else has changed. The same department. The same withheld files. The same survivors waiting. Changing the nameplate at Main Justice doesn’t change the obligation.
With a 427-1 vote, the House passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November, requiring the Department of Justice to release all unclassified Epstein files within thirty days. The Senate approved it unanimously. Trump finally got on board and agreed to sign it.
DOJ released some of the files. Then it stopped — and hid behind a legal fig leaf to justify it.
The Epstein files problem didn’t leave with Bondi.
The DOJ is saying roughly three million documents — the witness interviews, the evidence gathered by the FBI, the files most likely to contain the real story — are shielded by prosecutorial privilege. At the Oversight Committee hearing Friday, Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., wasn’t having it. “There’s a reason we don’t have the smoking guns, we don’t have the video evidence, we don’t have the witness interviews,” he said. “They’re claiming that’s all privileged. And that is a bunch of bull—t.”
He’s right. The Epstein Files Transparency Act and congressional subpoenas specifically apply to these types of documents. The privilege claim is a delay strategy, not a sound legal defense. The DOJ decided the public shouldn’t have access to some information in the Epstein files and then tried to find a legal justification.
That’s defiance of a law passed by an almost unanimous Congress. However, when Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to force compliance, the judge ruled that enforcement was beyond his authority in a closed criminal case and pointed them back to Capitol Hill. He did say there were legitimate concerns, however, about whether the DOJ was faithfully complying with federal law.
Because the court door is closed, Congress is the only path left for the survivors to get the transparency and accountability they deserve.
Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., has already drawn the blueprint. His EPSTEIN Act would establish an independent, bipartisan commission — eight members evenly split between parties, selected by leadership in both chambers and entirely separate from DOJ — with the authority to review unredacted files and refer criminal findings to state attorneys general for prosecution. That referral authority matters. This Justice Department won’t police itself. The commission would do it for them.
Critics will argue this proposal raises separation-of-powers concerns by moving Congress closer to functions traditionally reserved for the executive branch. But lawmakers like Bell are considering extraordinary measures because the ordinary ones have failed: Congress passed a disclosure law, the DOJ has not fully complied and the courts have declined to intervene. That leaves oversight, transparency and public accountability back on Capitol Hill.
The bill sits in the House Judiciary Committee, where the Republican majority may be hoping to bury it epin the hopes that no one notices.
But Democrats should make sure everyone notices.
They should force the vote. Make Republicans go on record. Do they support an independent review of the Epstein files or don’t they? Do they stand with the survivors or with Bondi and the new acting leadership of Trump’s Justice Department that won’t even give those survivors a meeting?
Bondi tried to wash her hands of the Epstein files mess in a closed-door interview before the House Oversight Committee on Friday — not on camera and with Todd Blanche’s name ready for every hard question. Don’t be fooled. It was her job to be transparent. And she wasn’t.
Anthony Coley is a political analyst for MS NOW. He was director of the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs in the Biden administration from February 2021 until January 2023. Before that, his previous roles included deputy assistant secretary in the Treasury Department’s Office of Public Affairs and communications director for U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
President Donald Trump will join the opening ceremony of the White House-backed “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall, the organizer said Saturday, just hours after Trump excoriated music artists who dropped out of the event.
Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for the White House initiative Freedom 250, said in a statement that Trump will “personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday.”
Earlier in the day, Trump had railed against artists who distanced themselves from the event celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary, saying in a Truth Social post that they “get paid far too much money” and “aren’t happy.” He said he was considering replacing them with the “number one attraction anywhere in the world”: himself.
The artists — many of whom have had successful decades-long careers — are “getting ‘the yips’” about having to perform at the event, he wrote. “So I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President.”
Almost all the artists who were included in the lineup for the two-week event have said they will not perform, citing its political affiliation. Freedom 250 threatens to overshadow programs organized by America250a nonpartisan organization established by Congress in 2016 to organize events this year commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. The newly founded Trump-backed group has caused confusion for celebrities and corporate sponsors who intended to participate in the official semiquincentennial group.
“We’ve got incredible momentum,” a spokeswoman for America250 said in a statement. “Already, America250 has shown up in some of the biggest moments in culture and sports, from ringing in the New Year in Times Square and appearing in the Rose Parade, to the NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl.”
The artists who have not pulled out the Trump-headlined event — including Vanilla Ice and Flo Rida — have been roundly criticized for their participation.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
The Dictatorship
Trump’s doctor declares him ‘fully fit’ and blames ‘frequent handshaking’ for bruising
President Donald Trump’s physician declared him in “excellent health,” but recommended the president lose weight and exercise more following his latest physical exam.
“Cognitive and physical performance are excellent,” Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella wrote in his report released on Friday. “He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”
Trump —the oldest person to be sworn in as president, who turns 80 next month — showed “strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function,” the doctor wrote. “His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements, and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being.”
The president’s weight was recorded as 238 lbs, 14 lbs heavier than what was reported in his April 2025 physical. Barbabella said he provided guidance to Trump on his diet, as well as advice to take low-dose aspirin, increase physical activity and lose weight.
Trump underwent his annual physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Afterward, he wrote on Truth Social“Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”
In his memo, Barbabella, who previously diagnosed Trump with chronic venous insufficiency, noted swelling in the president’s lower leg “with improvement from last year.” He attributed bruising on Trump’s hands to be “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation related to frequent handshaking.”
The swelling in Trump’s legs and bruising on his hands have been the subject of increasing scrutiny and speculation about the aging president’s fitness for office. The White House has attributed the bruising on the president’s hands to his frequent handshaking, as Barbabella noted in his latest report.
Trump has also appeared to nod off during public appearances. He has dismissed criticism of those incidents, saying he was merely “resting his eyes.”
Trump often boasts about the results of his medical exams, saying he has “aced” cognitive tests and that “the numbers were perfect” on his physical. He has frequently insisted that he is fit to serve as president, but his mental acuity for office has been called into question.
The latest physical, the third of his second term, took place amid mounting questions and public concerns about his health.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
In addition to threatening to bomb U.S. ally Oman and declaring that he doesn’t “care about the midterms,” President Donald Trump made a very different sort of surprise announcement at his Cabinet meeting Wednesday: “I think I’ll be going to one of the [NBA Finals] games.”
Specifically, the president said he had been invited by “numerous people,” including New York Knicks owner James Dolanto attend the team’s first finals home game since 1999, the same year Dolan took majority ownership over the franchise.
Although presidents have sporadically attended MLB’s World Series since the early 20th century, no president has appeared at the NBA finals — not even Barack Obama, who famously added a basketball court to the tennis grounds on the White House South Lawn. Trump would be the first to do so, just as he was the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl in 2025.
The news has, unsurprisingly, provoked strong reactions — most of them missing the point.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stepped on a metaphorical rake when she implied to reporters Thursday that Trump probably couldn’t name “the starting lineup of the 1993 Championship team” (the last Knicks title was in 1973). MAGA commentariat quickly seized the opportunity, mocking Hochul and amplifying a clip of Trump attending the Knicks’ Game 3 loss in the 1994 NBA Finals. Indeed, New York magazine found Trump has appeared in the “celebrity row” at Madison Square Garden numerous times over the decades, in keeping with his lifelong efforts at social climbing among the city’s elites.
But that’s all this is to Trump: A chance to be the ultimate celebrity in a room packed with them, at the Garden’s hottest ticket in decades.
To Knicks fans like myself, the team’s first Finals appearance in 27 years is a priceless and fleeting moment. It’s for us. To root happily after the mostly miserable decades of Dolan’s ownership, which The New York Times described as “so consistently and convincingly lifeless that perma-despair seemed utterly normal.” To wax nostalgic for the great Patrick Ewing-led teams of the 1990s, who came oh-so-close to hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy during the decade when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won six titles. To allow ourselves to believe the impossible dream could happen: watching Jalen Brunson and his teammates parading down the Canyon of Heroes among cascading ticker tape in mid-June.
That’s all this is to Trump: A chance to be the ultimate celebrity in a room packed with them, at the Garden’s hottest ticket in decades.
And while there are surely Trump supporters among the Knickerbockers’ fanbase, I can’t imagine even they’re clamoring to see the president peacocking at the Garden. Knicks fans understand what a precious instant this is and why it should not be drawn into Trump’s toxic orbit for the time it takes to play one best-of-seven series.
The joy surrounding the Knicks’ improbable run has vibes in this city running so high that native New Yorkers in blue and orange are being friendly to one another and making idle chitchat on the streets. It’s weird.
Even The Ringer’s Bill Simmons — typically a New York sports team hater — has cheered on the Knicks’ run as an unambiguously feel-good story for the league and has seemed genuinely happy on his podcast about the giddiness and anticipation among New York’s long-suffering basketball die-hards.
New York City is historically a basketball town. It has produced a disproportionate number of Hall of Famers and a culture of street and playground basketball often emulated but never duplicated. And in a region with almost a dozen major professional sports franchises (some, like the Yankeesare passionately hated by millions of New Yorkers), the Knicks are the only team that unites pretty much everyone. (Sorry, Brooklyn Nets, it just never really caught on.)
Israel Daramola aptly elucidated loyal Knicks fans’ predicament in the Defector: “In between those various eras was a lot of executive mismanagement, beefs, suffering, the worst contracts you’ve ever seen, an arena that has showcased the powers of the surveillance stateand an owner who takes joy in being awful, because no one likes his blues band or whatever. All of which is to say: I know people find the Knicks annoying and New York City insufferable, but dammit, they deserve this moment.”
Win or lose, we know this feeling isn’t meant to last.
Is it too much to ask for the historically unpopular president — who regularly disparages this city, made a big show of departing it and will never forgive it because it never loved him back — to not divert the spotlight, just this one time?
It ultimately won’t change the results on the court either way, and a Secret Service-locked-down Madison Square Garden for one night won’t spoil the party. But the Trumpness in the air would be an unwelcome energy in an atmosphere in which even the most cynical New Yorkers have briefly become wide-eyed, joyful fanatics.
This doesn’t need to be a morality play. Just do us a solid and stay away, Florida Man.
Anthony L. Fisher is a senior editor and opinion columnist for MS NOW.
- Trump to ‘kick off’ America’s 250th event after berating artists who backed out
- Trump’s doctor declares him ‘fully fit’ and blames ‘frequent handshaking’ for bruising
- Just let Knicks fans have this moment, Trump. Stay away.
- James Clyburn says Democrats are misreading their own base. Here’s his fix.
- Pam Bondi’s Epstein interview appears to have been an exercise in evading accountability
- Lead prosecutor steps away from Comey criminal case
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