NEW YORK (AP) — After Pam Bondi became U.S. attorney general last year, conservative influencers, online sleuths and others who wanted the government to disclose all it knew about Jeffrey Epstein thought they might have a champion in the Department of Justice.

So did Jess Michaels, one of the legions of women who have said they were sexually assaulted by the late financier and convicted sex offender with a roster of powerful friends in business, politics and beyond.

“I thought, ‘Well, maybe a woman stepping into this role will finally, finally get the truth,'” Michaels recalled Thursday, after President Donald Trump announced Bondi was out of the nation’s top law enforcement job.

“She had this opportunity to be a hero and to really do right by survivors of sexual violence and trafficking,” Michaels said, “and she chose not to.”

The furor over the “Epstein files,” as the trove of investigative records came to be known, wasn’t the only controversy of Bondi’s tenure. But the arc — first raising expectations for a big reveal, then declaring there was nothing to see, and ultimately a forced, flawed document dump — was a stubbornly problematic storyline that ran through her time as attorney general.

Here’s a glance at Bondi’s part in the Epstein saga:

February 2025: The binders

Freshly confirmed as attorney general for a president who had suggested on the campaign trail that he’d open more government documents on Epstein, Bondi whetted appetites by declaring on Fox News that “you’re going to see some Epstein information released.” And when a host asked about “releasing “the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients” — a long-rumored, never-seen sex trafficking roster — she replied that it was “sitting on my desk right now.”

A day later, conservative commentators and content creators were brought to the White House to get DOJ binders emblazoned with “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified.” The attempt to showcase transparency soon backfired, once it emerged that the contents largely were already public. Bondi demanded that the FBI give her “the full and complete Epstein files,” and she later said that she’d unearthed a “truckload” of previously withheld material and that “everything is going to come out to the public.”

July 2025: The walkback

After months of anticipation, the Justice Department said it wouldn’t release any more Epstein material. A court had sealed much of it to protect victims, and “only a fraction” would have come out if Epstein had gone to trial, the agency said in an unsigned memo. It added that authorities hadn’t found evidence that merited new charges or investigations and that “perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein” wouldn’t help victims get justice.

And, it said, there was no “client list.” As for Bondi’s prior comment that it was on her desk, officials said she had meant the overall case file.

November 2025: The legislation

Amid a drumbeat of disclosures that begin to exact consequences for some powerful people — particularly Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Britain’s former Prince Andrew — Congress passed legislation to force the Justice Department to disclose its investigative files on Epstein. Trump signed it into law, casting the quest for Epstein information as a Democratic-led distraction from the Republican agenda.

Meanwhile, at his urging, Bondi announced that the U.S. attorney in Manhattan would investigate Epstein’s ties to some of the Republican president’s political foes, including Democratic former President Bill Clinton. None has been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s accusers; nor has Trump, another former Epstein friend. Both Clinton and Trump have said they knew nothing about Epstein’s misconduct and cut ties with him many years ago.

December 2025: The first batch

At the statutory deadline for making the Epstein files public, the Justice Department released only some of them. While the records included some material the public hadn’t previously seen, including some candid photos of Clinton, the documents didn’t break major ground and included little about Trump.

The department said it was continuing to review other Epstein records to make sure that victims were protected.