Jeffrey Epstein survivor Jess Michaels says she didn’t need to study the tape closely to spot the shift in Pam Bondi’s expression. It was right there, she said, the moment the questions turned to what the Justice Department would have to do next with the scandal.
Michaels, on The Jim Acosta Show on Friday, remembered seeing Bondi answer reporters’ questions just hours after Congress passed a bill requiring the release of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. The vote was almost unanimous in both chambers. This left Bondi at the podium with a new legal deadline and little flexibility. “Pam Bondi had a very scared look on her face,” Michaels said, describing the press conference as a moment that showed much more than Bondi meant to convey.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act had sailed through the House 427–1 and then cleared the Senate without objection. President Donald Trump signed it that same night, obligating the DOJ to release tens of thousands of pages of records within 30 days. Only a few months earlier, Bondi had tried to close the door on the subject with a memo insisting there was no “client list” and suggesting there was nothing left to disclose. Now she was being asked, in real time, how the department planned to comply.
Bondi kept her tone formal and cautious, she noted that the DOJ had already released “over 33,000 Epstein documents” and promised that the agency would follow the law while protecting victims. But she stopped short of saying outright that every document would be made public within the new deadline. For viewers watching live, the hesitation stood out almost as much as the words themselves.
Ok so we’ve now gone from
We’re releasing the files to
Here are the binders to
Epstein trafficked to no one to
It’s a democrat hoax to
The disclosures being required by law
To this. A new investigation w new info which will seal the docs again
Fire Bondi pic.twitter.com/V88tXej4Lk
— Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) November 19, 2025
Bondi appeared visibly shaken as the questions continued. Reporters questioned her about whether new revelations from the Epstein files could lead to more investigations. She tried to direct the conversation back to process and compliance, but her responses became shorter and more cautious. Within hours, clips of the presser focused on her demeanor as much as her responses.
Michaels told Acosta that she saw what everyone else saw and when Acosta likened Bondi’s deexpression to someone who had “seen a ghost,” Michaels laughed and agreed. “Yes, yes. The ghost of Jeffrey Epstein is still haunting them,” she said.
After Bondi’s memo, lawmakers in both parties pushed back, arguing that the public had lost trust in the government’s handling of the case. The final bill requires the Justice Department to publish all unclassified Epstein-related records in a searchable format. It prevents the kind of redactions that were more about protecting reputations than revealing the truth, but it keeps safeguards in place for victims and delicate investigative details.
Whatever delays the DOJ once relied on are gone and the push for answers is coming from both parties and backed by an actual statute. Survivors, she added, are paying close attention as the countdown begins.
Acosta ended the segment by saying the only way to put the case’s long shadow behind the country is full transparency. Michaels agreed. Bondi’s uneasy performance, she suggested, showed how different the landscape looks now that the release of the files is not a matter of politics, but of law.
