The most telling moment in the Epstein hearing

With a cross around her neck and a "Mean Girls"-style burn book sitting in front of her, Pam Bondi accidentally gave away the whole game.

Attorney General Pam Bondi sat in front of the House Judiciary Committee for five hours today to face a grilling over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, which have revealed a vast network of rich and powerful men that sexually abused and trafficked underage kids for over a decade and got away with it. Behind Bondi sat two rows of Epstein’s victims, now grown women and men. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) used her time to address them directly: “To the survivors in the room, if you are willing, please stand,” she said. “And if you are willing, please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice.”

Every single survivor raised their hand. Some of them glared directly at the back of Bondi’s head as she continued to ignore them, as captured in this now-viral photo by NBC News.

Bondi wore a cross around in her neck. At the table in front of her was a “burn book” full of insults she had prepared with tabs for each Democratic lawmaker who addressed her. She ranted and raved at the questioners, deflecting and pointing fingers and generally sounding like Parker Posey on booze and Lorazepam. “You don’t tell me anything, you washed-up loser lawyer,” she snapped at Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) at one point. “You’re not even a lawyer.”

But it was Jerry Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) line of questioning that caused the crash-out of the day. “How many of Epstein’s co-conspirators have you indicted?” Nadler asked Bondi. “How many perpetrators are you even investigating?”

The answer is zero. But Bondi dodged the question, instead complaining about Nadler’s “theatrics” and launching into an unhinged rant about the stock market. "The DOW is over 50,000 dollars!” she said. “I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stock trader as I hear, Raskin. The Dow is over 50,000 right now. The S&P at almost 7,000, and the Nasdaq smashing records. That's what we should be talking about."

Yes, the Attorney General of the United States really told members of Congress today that instead of talking about the mass coverup of a network of rich and powerful child rapists—implicated in a shocking trove of documents that mention our sitting president more than a million times— they should shut up and be grateful that their stocks are up. Because that’s how it’s always worked, right? If you’re doing well by the shareholders, we’ll ignore your crimes. Everything that doesn’t affect the bottom line is just noise. Property over people; wealth trumps all.

Indeed, this DOJ has zero interest in prosecuting anyone involved in Epstein files. The’ve met with zero of his victims, though they have “mistakenly” doxxed many of them by redacting the perpetrators’ names instead of the girls that were abused. The only person DOJ officials have seemed interested in talking to is convicted child trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who was moved to a luxury prison with puppy visitations and custom meals in exchange for making a nice statement about Trump. (She’s still offering to clear his name in exchange for a full release.) And Karoline Leavitt has been responding to all Epstein questions this week with a simple, “We’re moving on from that.”

Perhaps the administration would like to move on from it, and I can see why. But there’s a growing majority of people who would vote for any Democrat at this point who campaigns on a promise to circle back and prosecute the fuck of all of these people for their crimes and their cover-ups. And Bondi’s demeanor today suggested that she knows she wouldn’t be spared.