Former Attorney General Pam Bondi told members of Congress that her successor Todd Blanche was responsible for the chaotic release of millions of documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein, according to Democratic lawmakers.Bondi, who Donald Trump fired last month, told members of the House Oversight Committee during a close-door deposition that she delegated oversight of the so-called Epstein files and the federal government’s investigations into the dead sex offender to her now-former deputy.“It was Todd Blanche, the current acting AG, that was leading the Epstein investigation,” the committee’s top Democrat Robert Garcia told reporters on Friday. “And quite frankly, all of the mistakes that we saw — the redactions, not protecting survivors — she continues to push that back onto the acting AG Todd Blanche, who by the way was Donald Trump's personal lawyer.Lawmakers asked her five times about her conversations with Trump concerning the case, and “she refused to answer any questions” about him, according to Garcia. “In fact, she said she would not speak or respond to any questions that had anything to do with President Trump,” he said.And when it came to questions about a controversial prison transfer for Epstein’s convicted trafficker associate Ghislaine Maxwell, “Bondi claims to have no knowledge of the actual transfer, no knowledge that it was a less secure prison, and didn’t know about it until she found out after the fact, and then refused to answer additional questions,” according to Garcia.(Getty)In her prepared remarks to the committee, Bondi admitted “there were redaction errors” during the release of the Epstein files. Those errors “outed” roughly 100 survivors, according to a federal lawsuit.“But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency,” Bondi continued. “Our stance has always been that the Department stands ready to review any potential evidence of criminal activity related to Epstein and his associates and would pursue appropriate investigative or prosecutorial action wherever the facts and law warrant.”Under legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump in November, the Department of Justice was ordered to release all files connected to investigations into Epstein by December 19.The administration has since published millions of pages of documents but has been accused of withholding records related to Trump, who socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. The president has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing, and one’s appearance in the Epstein files does not suggest otherwise.Those document dumps included thousands of pages of unredacted files, victim statements, witness interviews and other materials that included victim-identifying information.In February, federal prosecutors told judges overseeing the cases against Epstein and his associate and convicted trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell that the Justice Department was still “in the process” of removing and correcting those documents.Bondi, meanwhile, has faced intense bipartisan scrutiny over her handling of the release of documents and the Justice Department’s approach to investigations into the wealthy sex offender and his alleged co-conspirators.A much-anticipated release of Epstein documents handed out to far-right influencers at the White House last year contained information that was largely already public. In July, the Justice Department and FBI declared there was “no basis” to release any more Epstein-related documents, sparking allegations of a government-wide cover up to protect powerful public figures accused of exploiting and abusing young women and girls.During her sworn testimony to the House Judiciary Committee in February, Bondi repeatedly deflected questions about Epstein to talk about the stock market and chastised Democrats who questioned her.“The Dow is over 50,000 right now,” she said after she was questioned about potential indictments against Epstein’s co-conspirators.The Nasdaq is “smashing records” and Americans’ retirement accounts are “booming,” she said. “That’s what we should be talking about.”This is a developing story