Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, called a Democrat a “washed-up loser” as Congress questioned her over her handling of the Epstein files.
Ms Bondi’s department of justice oversaw the recent release of three million files connected to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
After being questioned about the department’s accidental disclosure of the names of scores of previously unidentified victims, Ms Bondi sparred with Democratic members of the House judiciary committee on Wednesday.
She repeatedly spoke over Democrat Jerrold Nadler, at which point Jamie Raskin, the committee’s ranking member, cut in.
“You can let her filibuster all you want but not on our watch. Not on our time. No way,” Mr Raskin said to the committee’s Republican chairman, before addressing Ms Bondi directly.
“I told you about that, attorney general, before you started.”
“You don’t tell me anything, washed-up loser lawyer,” Ms Bondi fired back. “You’re not even a lawyer.”
Before being elected to Congress in 2017, Mr Raskin was a law professor at American University in Washington, DC.
In his opening remarks, Mr Raskin accused Ms Bondi of “running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the department of justice”.
Ms Bondi has faced criticism over her handling of the Epstein files from politicians on both sides of the aisle as well as the president’s Maga base.
She said last February that she was reviewing Epstein’s “client list” but her department later said no such list existed.
The department of justice released three million files in Janurary after two congressmen – Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna – spearheaded a bill forcing it to do so.
The files not only mistakenly included the identities of victims. The department also redacted the names of some of Epstein’s prominent associates, which Mr Khanna said had been hidden “for no reason” on Tuesday.