JUST IN: Pam Bondi ‘Sidelined’ By Medical Emergency
Pam Bondi suffered a medical emergency just hours after reports emerged that she warned President Donald Trump his name appeared numerous times in the Epstein files.
It was unclear at first what caused the U.S. attorney general to abruptly skip the stage at CPAC’s Summit Against Human Trafficking, where she had been scheduled to answer questions about the U.S. Department of Justice’s work in that space.
“I do have a note from the attorney general, from Attorney General Pam Bondi, that I wanted to share,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti told the crowd of several hundred.
He read from the note: “I’m sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today…”
“Unfortunately, I am recovering from a recently torn cornea, which is preventing me from being with you. I truly wish I was able to join you and support all of the work being done on this critical issue.”
Galeotti no doubt appreciated he had big shoes to fill, chuckling nervously as the crowd applauded his appearance in Bondi’s stead.
“We appreciate the applause for her and not boos for me,” he joked. “So I will do my best to fill those big shoes.”
A trickle of attendees was seen exiting the conference room after it became clear that Bondi wouldn’t be speaking.
The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately provide any further details about Bondi’s status.
Her eye injury came after the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel both informed President Trump that his name appeared in several undisclosed files in the government’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation, raising questions about whether it influenced the administration’s decision to withhold a further release of documents.
Bondi’s planned CPAC appearance was a rare opportunity for members of the public to hear from a central player in the saga.
According to the Journal, Bondi told Trump that “unverified hearsay” in the investigation referenced his name several times. Trump, for his part, appeared unconcerned and deferred to the DOJ about whether or not to release the documents, according to the outlet.
White House officials continued to push the narrative that mentions of Trump in the Epstein files were unsurprising. Photos of the two men have been public for years, as has the documentation of their formerly close relationship before Trump expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for “being a creep,” a spokesman said this week.
“The fact is that the President kicked [Epstein] out of his club for being a creep,” Cheung told the Daily Mail. “This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about.”