WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi went on offense Tuesday as Senate Democrats grilled her about the Jeffrey Epstein case and other matters — with Bondi at one point suggesting Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island might be “concerned” about embarrassing links to the late pedophile.

Bondi sought to turn the tables on Whitehouse and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after facing months of criticism over her July 6 memo recommending against further public disclosures in the notorious sex trafficker’s case.

“How many of those Treasury [Suspicious Activity Reports] did you or [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel investigate?” Whitehouse asked Bondi about transactions made by Epstein that had been flagged by banks.

The attorney general snapped back: “Senator, I’m not sure if you’re concerned because you took money — I believe, did you? — from [LinkedIn co-founder] Reid Hoffman, one of Epstein’s closest confidants, not only once, but twice in 2018 and 2024.”

She added: “Did you ask [former Attorney General] Merrick Garland any of this over the last four years when he sat before you?”

Whitehouse plowed on: “There’s been public reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of President Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photographs in their search of Jeffrey Epstein’s safe or premises or otherwise?”

Bondi blasted him again: “You know, Senator Whitehouse, you sit here and make salacious remarks, once again trying to slander President Trump left and right — when you’re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein’s closest confidants … and the senator sitting right next to you [Durbin] tried to block the flight logs from being released.”

Whitehouse said in a statement after the hearing that “nobody by the name of Reid (or Reed) Hoffman has donated to any of my campaigns – not in 2018, not in 2024, not ever” — though federal records do show that Hoffman repeatedly donated to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which backs Senate Democrats.

When Durbin spoke, Bondi pointed out that in 2023, the committee’s top Democrat blocked an attempt by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to force the disclosure of Epstein’s flight logs.

“Why was the July 7 memo unsigned?” Durbin asked.

Bondi retorted: “Why did you fight to not disclose the flight logs, Senator Durbin?”

“I did not refuse,” he claimed. “One of the senators here wished to produce those logs, and I asked her to put it in writing, and she never did.”

“You know that I submitted that in writing,” Blackburn cut in to scold Durbin, “and you continue to misrepresent that, and I am not going to let that record stand.”

Trump has tried to move on from the Epstein controversy, calling it a Democratic “hoax” designed to smear him for his socializing with the disgraced financier in the 1990s and early 2000s.

A bipartisan cohort in Congress has continued to seek more information about Epstein’s links to powerful men such as former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, former Harvard president Larry Summers and Microsoft chief Bill Gates — with subpoenas and ensuing public disclosures by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.

Bondi and Durbin also tangled over the legal justification for Trump’s decision to dispatch the National Guard to Chicago. Bondi highlighted the hundreds of homicides that have taken place in the Windy City in recent years and noted that Patel, as well as Deputy Attoreny General Todd Blanche were en route to the city on Tuesday.

“I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump,” Bondi swiped at the ranking member. “If you’re not going to protect your citizens, President Trump will.”

Bondi deployed a similar line of attack against Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) in response to a question about whether the administration is required to follow court orders temporarily blocking the deployment of troops to American cities.

“I wish you loved your state of California as much as you hate President Trump,” scolded the AG, who noted that violent crime in California is 35% higher than the national average.

After Padilla tried to cut Bondi off during a line of questioning about Patel, she laced into him for disrupting a Department of Homeland Security press conference in June.

“You want ‘order’ here now, yet you stormed the Director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem,” Bondi chided. “You sure didn’t have ‘order’ that day, did you, Senator?”  

“It’s on video!” she exclaimed after Padilla denied her characterization of what happened. 

When Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Bondi about various corporate mergers, she denounced him as “someone who lied about being in the military just to be a senator” and jabbed: “I cannot believe that you would accuse me of impropriety when you lied about your military service.”

Elsewhere, when Whitehouse asked about what happened to $50,000 in cash that went to Tom Homan as part of an FBI sting operation last year, Bondi replied: “Senator, I would be more concerned if I were you, when you talk about corruption and money, when you push for legislation that would subsidize your wife’s company.”

The Rhode Island Democrat scoffed at the suggestion of malfeasance involving his wife’s receipt of nearly $2.7 million from the federally funded Ocean Conservancy, calling it “completely irrelevant far-right internet talking points.”

Another epic clash involved Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of Trump’s fiercest rivals on Capitol Hill. 

“Clearly you’re a failed lawyer because you don’t understand when someone can and cannot answer a question,” she jabbed before calling on Schiff to apologize for “slandering” the president during the Russia investigation and needling him over wildfires and riots in Los Angeles earlier this year. 

Bondi also poked at Democrats throughout the hearing over the partial government shutdown that entered Day 7 on Wednesday.

“All of my agents are on the street working without a paycheck because your party voted to shut down the federal government,” she told Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who had questioned the AG about firings inside the DOJ.