Pam Bondi’s Open Folder – A Glimpse Into the Shadow Direction of the Justice Department

There are moments when power unintentionally exposes itself. One of those moments occurred during the October 7, 2025 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when Reuters photographer Jonathan Ernst captured an unremarkable yet revealing photo: Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s uncompromising Justice Minister, holding a manila folder in her hand – stuffed with prepared attacks on her political opponents. Pasted on the folder were printouts of tweets by Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, including the line: “No government official should be above the law.” A statement that should have been made for a minister whose own department stands accused of having withheld investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein. But instead of affirming it, Bondi apparently used it as a template for a counterattack. Below it are handwritten bullet points, sharp as blades: “You claim to be a social justice warrior but…” – “You run a sham investigation.” These are not the notes of an independent prosecutor but the lines of a spin doctor who knows exactly when the dagger should land.

And then there is that one sentence, oval-shaped, almost lovingly circled: “Epstein – Did you take $ from Reid Hoffman???” That is not a legal argument, it is a political hand grenade. Hoffman, billionaire and LinkedIn founder, is considered one of the loudest supporters of Democratic campaigns. To mention him in the same breath as Epstein is not a question – it is a method. What this photo shows is more than carelessness. It shows how the Justice Department under Bondi has become a stage for political theater direction. No spontaneous defense, no improvised argumentation – everything was pre-calculated, set to attack, ready for the moment when the cameras flash.

The handwriting on the folder reveals a double agenda: rhetorically clean, morally dirty. It reads: “If questioned, hammer ‘safety.’” – “If you are asked about it, emphasize the issue of safety.” That is the language of spin rooms, not of the rule of law. It sounds like a White House communications briefing, not like the oath of an Attorney General.

While the minister in the chamber spoke about “transparency,” the real transparency lay before her on the table. The Justice Department, once the symbol of independent law enforcement, now appears under Bondi increasingly like a political branch of the Trump campaign – only without a ballot box, but with talking points. And thus a folder becomes a symbol: for a government that believes itself when it says it defends the law, while in truth it is rewriting it. The scene almost seems satirical – as if someone had turned “House of Cards” into a courtroom drama and forgotten that the script is real.

One might say: This was not a mistake but a revelation. In the hands of a minister who perhaps, and only perhaps, can still spell the word “independent” when she reads it from someone else’s files.