Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melburgh. We're beginning with not only fallout from the Epstein

files, but accountability under oath. This was an explosive day in Washington. The Trump

Attorney General, Pam Bondi, at turns was defensive, lashing out on the attack, doing talking

points, even getting personal. And for all the skepticism or cynicism in our country right now,

for understandable reasons, her situation being under oath, having to discuss a topic that she's

spent a long time trying to dodge on, and a president who tried to fight the very law,

she is now tasked with carrying out, all of this speaks

to how some things are still working. She couldn't dodge the Congress forever, just as they couldn't

hide the documents forever. The documents, of course, being the Epstein files, and the testimony

comes as we have many serious questions. Why is Donald Trump in the file so many times, apart from being a public

figure who's sometimes mentioned in articles? Why was his name redacted repeatedly? Are all the

redactions on the level or not? Will the Trump official who spent years lying about his ties to

Epstein and only from these files now admitted visiting Epstein Island face any accountability.

And how does all of this impact the survivors who've been through, of course, more than enough,

but who've also been proven right repeatedly, right about how the government has failed them,

right about how this process didn't work, right about how transparency, which can be complicated.

That's why we have grand jury secrecy rules and other valid ways that confidentiality matters,

but transparency can be a way to get public accountability, which they didn't get, which failed

them through the other more traditional means. I mentioned them because not only are they, of get, which failed them through the other more traditional means.

I mentioned them because not only are they, of course, the victims in this long-running case,

but many of them chose Epstein survivors to attend this hearing today.

They asked why the redaction seemed at times to mistakenly, erroneously,

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