Many of you probably are familiar with this adage: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." That pearl of wisdom often has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain, and it sounds like something either man might have said. But our research indicates there is doubt that the saying originated with them. The Yale Book of Quotations (YBQ) appears to be the first source to credit Lincoln, but quoteinvestigator.com is reluctant to go with Lincoln or Twain, so we will have to leave the quote's origin up in the air. Either way, it's a classic -- short, filled with truth, humorous, and easy to remember.
The saying comes to mind after watching the appearance of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday morning before the House Judiciary Committee. In the days before Donald Trump, such a setting usually called for at least a minimal level of dignity. But Bondi, who acts more as Trump's personal attorney rather than as "the people's lawyer," could not muster even the slightest hint of decorum. Instead, her appearance devolved into a shouting match when U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) dared to suggest she was conducting a cover-up related to the Epstein files.
Based on Bondi's reaction, you would have thought one of those fake wrestling matches from yesteryear was about to commence -- the kind where the villain tended to wear a mask, from which he would extract a metal object and use it to draw blood above the brow of the hero. To maximum dramatic effect, the hero would regain his senses in the nick of time, with both wrestlers bouncing off the ropes only to violently meet in the middle of the ring, where the hero would land a well-timed elbow to the chest, allowing him to pin the bad guy as the crowd went into a frenzy. By the way, it's not that I've actually attended such an event; I've only heard others speak of them . . . (cough, hack, snort!)
We will go into a blow-by-blow account of the Bondi-Nadler grudge match -- and you can watch a video of the main event at the top of this post -- but I should note that Bondi's behavior was not a surprise to your humble blogger. Back when Legal Schnauzer was based in Alabama, we wrote a number of stories about Bondi's political dabblings, mainly because of her connections to an Alabama GOP operative named Jessica Medeiros Garrison and and the ties they both had to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). Our reports mostly were in the 2016-2024 range and some included details about Bondi's relationship with one Donald J. Trump. (See here, here, here, and here.)
What about RAGA, and how did Bondi and Garrison figure into its sometimes sketchy activities? We have addressed those questions in a number of posts, most of them long before Bondi became a national figure. (See here, here, and here.) Why do we describe RAGA's activities as sketchy? Well, the organization somehow managed to attract the attention of investigators from The New York Times, which produced a series of articles that can be viewed at this link. The subjects of The Times reporting do not come off in a flattering light. (We will have more in upcoming posts on Pam Bondi, Jessica Medeiros Garrison, their ties to what appeared to be a shakedown operation, and how much of this connects to Donald Trump.)
For now, let's return to Bondi's contentious showdown with Jerrold Nadler, per a report from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page:
BREAKING: “You washed-up loser lawyer!” Pam Bondi throws a FURIOUS tantrum after Rep. Jerry Nadler confronts her on letting Epstein’s cronies walk free!Attorney General Pam Bondi was called before the House Judiciary Committee this morning to face the music for orchestrating a cover-up of the Epstein files and protecting the powerful pedophiles whose identities are hidden within…and when confronted with the facts, she blew her top in a transparently Trumpian projection of guilt.Nadler got right down to the point, and immediately made it clear that he wasn’t going to put up with her deflection shenanigans.
NADLER: “How many of Epstein's co-conspirators have you indicted? How many perpetrators are you even investigating?”BONDI: First, you showed it. I find it—NADLER: How many have you indicted?BONDI: *angrily* Excuse me! I'm going to answer the question.
NADLER: Answer my question
BONDI: No, I'm going to answer the question the way *I* want to answer the question.NADLER: No, you're going to answer the question the way I asked it.BONDI: Chairman Jordan, I'm not going to get in the gutter with these people, but I'm going to answer the question.NADLER: How many have you indicted?BONDI: I think it's very interesting. I think it's very interesting that he talks about they indicted— The president said they indicted him twice —
JAMIE RASKIN, INTERJECTING: Mr. Chairman, please stop the clock and restore his time.BONDI: Oh, okay. Here we go with these theatrics!RASKIN: You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch. Not on our time. And I told you about that, Attorney General, before you started.BONDI: YOU DON’T TELL ME ANYTHING YOU WASHED UP, LOSER — not even a lawyer.NADLER: All right. My time. The answer to my question, how many of Epstein's co-conspirators has she indicted, is zero.
Occupy Democrats concludes: "Bondi and the rest of the Trump team have no explanation and no possible justification for what they’ve done and are continuing to do on behalf of powerful pedophiles — so bluster, bullying, and tantrums are all they have."What a disgraceful show by our nation’s most senior law enforcement officer. She must be impeached as soon as possible. and brought to justice — along with every single one of the pedophiles she's protecting."
In October 2025, a former Trump administration official compared Bondi to Nixon-era Attorney General John Mitchell -- and it was not in a favorable light, as this article from The Hill makes clear under the headline "Ty Cobb: Bondi more 'reprehensible' than Nixon attorney general:
Former White House attorney Ty Cobb, who served during President Trump’s first term, lambasted Attorney General Pam Bondi for her combative congressional testimony.
In an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Cobb said Bondi’s tenure as the country’s chief law enforcement official has been more “reprehensible” than that of Nixon-era Attorney General John Mitchell, who was later convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal.
Asked if he had ever “seen something like that before,” referring to Bondi’s performance, Cobb said, “Never.”
“I think today she achieved one thing,” he continued. “She knocked John Mitchell off the perch of reprehensible attorney generals as No. 1, despite his guilty plea and time in jail.”
Bondi arrived armed with personal attacks against individual Democratic senators and lobbed them at her questioners when pressed on a range of topics.
She refused to divulge any discussions she’s had with the White House, including whether she and Trump have discussed the legal justification for National Guard deployments in Portland, Ore., and Chicago against local officials’ objections.
She also would not say who instructed the FBI to flag Trump’s name in the Epstein files, telling Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the committee’s ranking member, “I’m not going to discuss anything about that with you, senator.”
“Eventually, you’re going to have to answer for your conduct in this,” Durbin responded. “You won’t do it today, but eventually you will.”
Trump is going to throw Bondi "under the bus" sooner or later
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