Jimmy Kimmel on the US Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein files: “A shameless cover-up” | Late night TV report

The late night hosts recalled US Attorney Pam Bondi’s controversial congressional hearing in which she faced tough questions about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel opened Wednesday’s monologue with a grudging admission that Donald Trump won the only “Undisputed Champion of Coal” award from an organization called the Washington Coal Club. He joked that the award “brings his real prize pool to zero.”

He continued: “All he wants are awards and for everything to be named after him.” “The Kennedy Center, Dulles Airport, Penn Station — I mean, if that’s the way to keep him happy, I have another suggestion for something we could name after him. And it’s a big one, and I think he’ll like it, because it’s something everyone talks about. It’s something that actually, unlike most of the other things he wants to name after him, is worth being a part of.”

The host suggested adding his name to the Epstein Files — “or, with your cooperation and the cooperation of others, they will hereafter be known as the Trump-Epstein Files.”

Kimmel then shredded the files that had become a defining albatross around the Trump administration’s neck. Although the US Department of Justice mistakenly released many of the victims’ names, it also redacted several of Epstein’s co-conspirators, including the US president, who reportedly appeared in the files about a million times.

“And that doesn’t even include the three million pages they haven’t published yet,” Kimmel reminded. “This obviously puts MAGA in a bit of a bind. Obviously, showing up a million times is not a positive for the Pizzagate party. So now they’re grabbing anything they can,” including a document that says that when authorities were first closing in on Epstein in 2006, Trump called the police chief in Palm Beach, Florida, and said, “Thank God you’re stopping him. Everyone knew he was doing it.”

“And this is the evidence they say He wants People have to see now,” Kimmel marveled.

The continuing saga of the Epstein files was the talk of Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as Bondi appeared unrepentant before a congressional committee. Bondi declined to apologize to many of Epstein’s victims in the gallery, but accused several lawmakers, including Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, of suffering from “Trump confusion syndrome.”

“Yes, the hardline conservative congressman from Kentucky who endorsed Trump three times has Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Kimmel responded. “Trump himself, the guy who tweeted the Obamas like monkeys the other day? Solid as a rock. Everyone’s screwed.”

“I mean, seriously, there’s nothing defensible here,” he continued. “This Department of Justice is hiding the names of people who were not victims. Why would they do that? If they have nothing to hide, why would they hide names? That’s it. That’s the only question anyone should ask.”

“It’s crazy,” he concluded. “It’s a shameless cover-up.”

Daily show

And on the Daily Show, Jordan Klepper relished a particularly sad moment from the Winter Olympics, when Norwegian skier Sturla Holm Liegried won bronze in the men’s 20-kilometer biathlon, then admitted, in a viral post-race interview, that he had cheated on his girlfriend of six months. “It was the worst week of my life,” he said in an appeal to get her back.

“I was going to say, ‘Thank you, Mom and Dad,’ or ‘Thank you, God,’ but instead I said, ‘Guess what, world, I can’t keep it in my pants,'” Kleber laughed.

“You know, if fixing your six-month situation is that important, I guess it’s a good idea to hijack the news cycle to talk about it. I’m sure your teammate who won the gold medal has nothing more important to draw attention to.”

In fact, it was a very emotional victory for fellow Norwegian Johan Olav Putin. Putin dedicated his gold medal to his late colleague Seifert Guttorm Bakken, who died unexpectedly in December. “Oh right, our dead fellow! I was between honoring him or talking about how much I was getting,” Clipper joked. “Dude, come on! You hijacked that to try to get your romance back? This is basically like instead of interrupting Taylor Swift, Kanye interrupted the anniversary clip.”

Later in the segment, Klepper addressed Bundy’s disgraced appearance before Congress. “You’d be in a bad mood too if you spent the last month removing old man’s genitals from Epstein’s files,” he joked. Bondi, who angrily responded to any questions from lawmakers, “acted like a top troublemaker who had been called into the director’s office.”

“Her performance upset a lot of people, because they were hoping for justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims,” ​​he noted. “But for Pam Bondi, there is only one victim in all of this.”

That would be Donald Trump. Bondi repeatedly called for public apologies to the man whom she also described as “the greatest president in American history” as well as “the greatest president in American history.”the “The most transparent president in the country’s history.”

Kleber wasn’t impressed: “If you’re going to embarrass yourself on national television like that, at least win a bronze medal first.”