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"We live in a country where we have one reality for everyday people and another for the rich, the well-connected, and the well-protected," Lee said. "And that cannot continue to be our reality."
Democratic Rep. Summer Lee introduced articles of impeachment against US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday and accused the nation's top prosecutor of “breaking the law to protect pedophiles” and prosecute President Donald Trump’s “political opponents.”
"We live in a country where we have one reality for everyday people and another for the rich, the well-connected, and the well-protected. And that cannot continue to be our reality," Lee (D-Pa.) said in a video posted to her social media on Tuesday announcing the articles.
Two of the five articles pertain to Bondi's conduct surrounding the Department of Justice's (DOJ) release of files related to the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which the DOJ has been accused of covering up to protect Trump.
One article accuses Bondi of obstruction of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena in July 2025, which required the DOJ to release the full, unredacted files to the House Oversight Committee in August as part of a congressional inquiry.
"The Department of Justice refused to adhere to the subpoena and withheld substantial evidence; evidence logs indicate that amongst the withheld evidence are FBI interviews with a survivor who accused Trump of sexual abuse," the article reads.
In February, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee announced that they were investigating the DOJ's handling of an accusation made against Trump to the FBI in 2019. A woman accused the president of having sexually assaulted her at the age of 13 in the 1980s.
Another impeachment article accuses Bondi of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), signed into law in November, which required the DOJ to release "all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials" pertaining to the Epstein case without redacting information to protect powerful figures from embarrassment.
The DOJ missed the December 19 deadline to release the files and has since released only about 3 million pages of documents as part of its "final" trove, while millions more remain unavailable.
The pages that have been released, the article says, "were heavily redacted" to scrub the names of Trump and other powerful figures, but sensitive information about many of Epstein's victims—including identifying details and nude photographs—was released, even though the law said redacting this information was permitted.
Meanwhile, it says the DOJ "continues to withhold documents," including FBI interviews with the Trump accuser.
Three of four memos detailing the interviews with the accuser were posted to the DOJ website in March. They include the victim's graphic claims that Trump hit her after she bit his penis when he attempted to force her to perform oral sex.
Trump has denied the allegations, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has called the alleged victim "disturbed."
Approximately 37 pages of FBI records related to the accusation, including the fourth memo and pages of agent notes, remain unreleased to the public, according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
"Pam Bondi is complicit in the most egregious cover-up in American history, hiding documents that reveal a young woman reported being sexually assaulted by Donald Trump when she was just a minor," said Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), a cosponsor of Lee's impeachment articles. "Bondi’s actions are not only disgusting and wrong. They are also illegal."
Another article accuses Bondi of having "abused" the DOJ and FBI's powers in a partisan fashion—to target Trump's enemies and shield his friends from accountability. It also cites Bondi's attempts to criminalize protesters who express anti-Trump viewpoints by designating them as "domestic terrorism threats" and creating secretive lists of organizations and individuals to be targeted.
Bondi is also accused of misleading courts on several occasions—including in the cases against former FBI Director James Comey and the Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García and says she presented "demonstrably false allegations in court to support baseless prosecutions against protesters."
She is also accused of perjury before Congress during her confirmation hearing, where she pledged not to politicize her office or target journalists. It also accused her of lying during last month's contentious hearing in which she claimed that there was "no evidence" in the Epstein files "that Donald Trump has committed a crime."
No US attorney general has ever been impeached by the US House, which requires a simple majority. Trump was impeached twice by a Democratic-controlled House during his first term of office, though neither resulted in a conviction in the Senate, which requires a two-thirds majority.
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had articles of impeachment filed against her in January by more than 80 cosponsors following the shooting of two US citizens by immigration agents.
Earlier this month, Noem became the highest-ranking Trump official to be fired in his second term, and earlier this week, Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees referred her to the DOJ for prosecution, also for perjury.
In addition to Ansari, Lee's impeachment articles against Bondi are cosponsored by Reps. Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Dave Min (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.). Previous articles of impeachment against Bondi have been introduced by Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) earlier this month.
Lee emphasized that while Bondi "deserves to be held accountable," this "is also about what we want our government to be, and who we want it to work for."
"This is our chance to get justice," Lee said, "to hold people accountable who, time and again, have gotten away with screwing us over."
"I’m going to say what too many politicians won’t: The system is rigged, the obscenely wealthy are profiting from it, and working people deserve more than scraps."
As Democrats plan boycotts and counterprogramming to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address next week, progressives are readying their own response to resist not just the historically unpopular commander-in-chief, but the centrist faction of their own party.
For years, the State of the Union has served as a platform for rising stars in the opposition party. The Democrats are rolling out the newly minted Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a darling of the party establishment whose inaugural committee boasts an army of corporate backers—including Amazon and Capitol One, lobbying groups for the gambling industry and car dealerships, and multiple tobacco companies.
Seeking to push an alternative vision, the left-wing Working Families Party (WFP) has chosen Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), whom national director Maurice Mitchell described as "fearless, rooted in working-class communities, and unafraid to take on both MAGA extremism and corporate power."
Previous WFP speakers have included Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.).
"I’m going to elevate the voices of the people in my district and across the country who are angry, scared, and fed up with an administration that’s done nothing to help and a lot to hurt everyday people,” Lee said. “I’m going to say what too many politicians won’t: The system is rigged, the obscenely wealthy are profiting from it, and working people deserve more than scraps.
"Now more than ever," she continued, "we need a political home for people who are ready to fight back against Trump’s corruption and cruelty, and the corporate politics that made him possible.”
Her address comes at a pivotal moment for the Democratic Party's future. Despite the sinking popularity of Trump and soaring expectations of a blue wave in this November's midterms, polls show that Democratic voters are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with their party's leadership, believing it has failed to forcefully take on corporate power and pursue policy priorities like universal healthcare and increased taxes on the rich.
Contrary to Spanberger, a former congresswoman who consistently voted to hike military spending and called on former President Joe Biden to avoid pursuing an ambitious FDR-style social spending agenda, Lee has championed Medicare for All, a wealth tax on the richest Americans, and Green New Deal legislation while being one of Congress' fiercest critics of the US's unconditional military support for Israel.
"Summer Lee is the kind of leader this moment demands," Mitchell said. “At a time when voters are losing faith in the two-party status quo, the Working Families Party is building a disciplined, independent political force that can defeat Trump and actually deliver on jobs, wages, healthcare, and more.”
"What does it say about us that the news of a conservative political activist getting assassinated may need to compete for coverage with yet another school shooting?" said one podcaster.
As condemnation of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk continued to pour in on Wednesday, details emerged about another shooting, at Evergreen High School in Colorado, that left at least three teenagers in critical condition.
"What does it say about us that the news of a conservative political activist getting assassinated may need to compete for coverage with yet another school shooting?" writer and podcaster Manny Fidel asked on social media.
Kirk, the 31-year-old CEO and co-founder of the right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot during an event at Utah Valley University. Kirk's spokesperson, Andrew Kolvet, and US President Donald Trump confirmed his death. There is no suspect in custody.
Footage shared on social media shows that just before Kirk was shot in the neck, a member of the crowd asked him, "Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?" Kirk responded, "Counting or not counting gang violence?"
March for Our Lives, which launched in the wake of the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was among the organizations and public figures who weighed in on Kirk's apparent assassination.
" Gun violence spares no one," the group said. "The shooting of Charlie Kirk makes clear that this crisis doesn't care about ideology or politics—it endangers us all. We know the solutions: stronger background checks, extreme risk protection orders, accountability for the gun industry, and more. What stands in the way is not a lack of answers, but political obstruction. Every day of inaction costs lives. It's long past time for leaders of every party to choose people over politics and act."
March for Our Lives also called out the Trump administration for various actions it has taken since the president returned to power:
Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts said, "The problem with allowing guns everywhere is that no one is safe anywhere."
Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Utah 36th in the country for "gun law strength." The Utah Valley University website says in part that it "complies with state law with regard to weapons" and "allows concealed firearm permit holders to possess their concealed firearm on campus."
Watts and March for Our Lives were among those who highlighted that the Kirk shooting coincided with the one in Colorado. The gun violence prevention organization said, "Another group of kids left to live with fear and trauma, because our so-called leaders would rather protect the gun lobby than protect the people they serve."
As The Denver Post reported on the shooting in Evergreen, Colorado:
Hundreds of police and law enforcement officers responded to the high school at 29300 Buffalo Park Road for an active shooting, which county officials first reported on social media at 12:40 pm.
Three people from the high school were being treated at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood on Wednesday afternoon and were in critical condition, spokesperson Lindsay Radford said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office later confirmed on social media that "one of the three students transported is the suspect," and the school, which over 900 children attend, has been cleared by law enforcement.
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said that "I am closely monitoring the situation at Evergreen High School, and am getting live updates. State troopers are supporting local law enforcement in responding to this situation. Students should be able to attend school safely and without fear across our state and nation. We are all praying for the victims and the entire community."
Polis separately addressed Kirk's shooting, saying that "political violence is never acceptable, and I condemn the brutal and inexcusable attack on Charlie Kirk in Utah. This is a challenging time for so many in our country, but any divisions we face will never be solved by trying to hurt each other. I am sending hope and love to his friends and his family in this dark hour. I encourage everyone to be stronger and disagree better and peacefully."
Like the governor, Fred Guttenberg, who became an activist against gun violence after his 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was murdered in Parkland, took note of both shootings. He declared that "it is time for Republicans and Democrats to find a way to work together to reduce gun violence."
Also acknowledging both shootings, Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said: "Gun violence and political violence cannot continue to devastate our communities. We need gun reform now."