Republicans on the House Rules Committee have blocked a Democratic-led effort to force the Justice Department to release documents related to its investigation into the dead convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — whom Donald Trump once called a “terrific guy.” This comes after President Trump published a lengthy diatribe defending Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files and calling interest in the Epstein case a “waste of time.” Trump’s post sparked an unprecedented backlash among his MAGA supporters. For the first time ever, Trump was “ratioed” on his own social media platform, meaning he drew more replies than shares — the vast majority of them negative. On Tuesday, Attorney General Bondi refused to answer reporters’ questions about her claim last February — which she later reversed — that Epstein’s client list was sitting on her desk to review.

Attorney General Pam Bondi: “I appreciate your question, but this today is about fentanyl overdoses throughout our country and people who have lost loved ones to fentanyl. That’s the message that we’re here to send today, nothing about Epstein. I’m not going to talk about Epstein. Go ahead.”