Ben Shapiro: Pam Bondi ‘Botched’ Epstein Rollout ‘Eight Ways From Sunday’

Attorney General Pam Bondi botched the investigation into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, failing to deliver on hype she created around the convicted child sex offender, according to Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro.

Shapiro blasted Bondi during an appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Monday, arguing that Bondi placed the FBI, and by extension the Trump administration, in a no-win situation by teasing documents and evidence on Epstein and his alleged conspirators that she could not deliver.

“I think that Pam Bondi botched this eight ways from Sunday. I have not seen a bigger botchery of a rollout of a story maybe ever,” said Shapiro.

“I’m not blaming anybody who’s upset with the fact that they were told by Pam Bondi, at least by implication, that there was an Epstein list, that there were tens of thousands of hours of tapes, that there are 1,000 victims, that there was more coming. And then nothing happens, right?” the Daily Wire host said. “That seems to be on Pam Bondi.”

“I have not seen a bigger botchery of a roll-out of a story maybe ever…”@BenShapiro on how the Epstein debacle, Bongino, and Bondi.

Watch below, and subscribe:https://t.co/Y12z2uLeBJ pic.twitter.com/Tjxnz4nVgA

— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) July 14, 2025

Bondi’s public messaging in the months leading up to the release of the Department of Justice’s final conclusions on Epstein created a gulf between expectations and reality, according to Shapiro.

“Pam Bondi went on Fox News, at the very best was unclear when she said the Epstein list is on my desk,” he said, referring to a February interview in which Bondi said, in response to a question about Epstein’s “client list”: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”

“‘It,’ she claims, was like, all the papers for Epstein. Okay, fine, but you were very, very not clear about that, at best,” Shapiro added.

Later in February, the Department of Justice handed out binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to right-wing influencers in a White House event. The binders handed out carried little to no new information on Epstein. After receiving blowback, Bondi clarified in a statement that the binders contained “documents that have been previously leaked, but never released in a formal capacity by the U.S. Government.”

Shapiro said the event was “much more damning” than Bondi’s poorly-worded Fox News interview.

“She had a bunch of influencers in the White House, she hands them a binder filled with old crap – all redacted. And then they trot out and hold it up to the cameras like, ‘Hey, look, this is our big prize.’ And then it turns out that there’s nothing new there,” the Daily Wire host said.

Hours after the event with right-wing influencers, Bondi released a letter she sent to FBI Director Kash Patel accusing his agency of misleading her about a trove of files on Epstein. The letter said that the FBI field office in New York withheld “thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.”

The issue was resolved less than a week later when the attorney general said she received “a truckload” of Epstein files from the FBI.

Shapiro expressed skepticism over Bondi’s public rebuke of the FBI. “There is no evidence that there are all these documents that Kash Patel was hiding somewhere in the basement that he had not given Pam Bondi,” Shapiro pointed out.

“And then all we get is this two-page letter that, basically, is supposed to put everything to bed,” he continued, referring to a Department of Justice memo released last week concluding that Epstein did not keep a “client list” and that the disgraced financier died by suicide in 2019.

The Trump administration has been embroiled in criticism since the Department of Justice released its findings on July 6, much of the fire coming from supporters of President Donald Trump.

The fiasco has led to fissures within the Justice Department, with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino reportedly threatening to quit unless Bondi steps down. Nobody has yet exited the administration, and the president has publicly attempted to soothe criticism and downplay divisions in the administration.

If Bongino’s version of events is accurate – that Bondi oversold what the FBI had on Epstein and placed the agency and its leadership in an impossible situation – “then, obviously, I’m very much on Dan Bongino’s side and Kash Patel’s side,” said Shapiro.

Bondi’s handling of the Epstein investigation “makes Dan look bad, it makes Kash look bad, it makes the president look bad, and all the rest,” he said. “I think that Pam Bondi pretty clearly to the public made a bunch of statements that were unrepresentative of the final DOJ-FBI memo that was released.”