After Pam Bondi became U.S. attorney general last year, conservative influencers, online sleuths and others who wanted the government to disclose all it knew about Jeffrey Epstein thought they might have a champion in the Department of Justice. So did some of the legions of women who have said they were sexually assaulted by the late financier and convicted sex offender with a roster of powerful friends in business, politics and beyond. But Bondi's handling of the “Epstein files” became a stubbornly problematic storyline that ran through her time as attorney general. Bondi rejected criticism of her handling of the issue, and Trump on Thursday praised her as “a Great American Patriot.”
