SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah Jazz brought in Jaren Jackson Jr. with an eye on accelerating the franchise's rebuilding process.
When the Jazz acquired the two-time All-Star in a trade with Memphis on Feb. 3rd, it sent a clear signal Utah is serious about moving closer to playoff contention next season. The Jazz envision Jackson forming a long-term frontcourt partnership with top scorer Lauri Markkanen that promises to create size and length mismatches against many opponents.
Jackson, who earned NBA Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2023, embraces the idea of playing a pivotal role in helping Utah finally make the transition from lottery team to future playoff contender.
“My goal is to come here and win a championship here,” Jackson said before making his home debut for Utah against Sacramento on Wednesday. “I don’t really think my mind is geared toward anything else. That’s just kind of the mentality that I have. Then when you look at who we have, I really like what I see.”
Through his first two games since joining the Jazz, Jackson is averaging 22 points, 4.5 rebounds, and three assists while playing 25 minutes per game. His versatility already seems like an ideal fit for how Utah wants to construct its roster beyond this season.
Jazz coach Will Hardy said he’s eager to find out how pairing Jackson and Markkanen on the court will force opposing teams to adjust to combat their length, size, and individual playmaking abilities.
“The thing I’ve been most interested in – and it’s going to be one we have to continue to explore – is when he and Lauri play together, what are the matchups like?” Hardy said. “Who’s guarding who? What types of players are teams going to put on each of those guys?”
Jackson is already feeling comfortable with the Jazz, despite still being mostly unfamiliar with the playbook.
“This system is a different offense than anything I’ve played in before,” Jackson said. “It’s a system with a lot of movement, especially offensively, and I think I can bring a lot to the table. I’m learning a lot about it. Every day I learn a little bit more.”
His presence has already influenced significant defensive improvement from the Jazz.
In two games with Jackson, Utah is allowing 115.5 points per game while limiting opponents to 41.8% shooting from the field. Jackson has emerged as a vocal leader on the court, helping younger teammates figure things out quicker defensively.
“The thing I’ve been most impressed with in our short time together is his communication,” Hardy said. “He’s an elite defensive communicator.”
Playing Jackson has required a balancing act for Utah between making progress for the future and retaining a top-eight protected first round pick in the 2026 NBA draft. The Jazz have drawn criticism on social media and elsewhere recently after Hardy elected not to play Jackson and Markkanen in the fourth quarter during the team’s recent road games against Orlando and Miami.
Jackson takes his playing time in stride and said his main focus is on making the most out of whatever minutes he gets on the court.
“You just have to make an impact when you’re in the game,” said Jackson, while also noting he’s mentally capable of handling anything thrown at him in his eighth season in the league. “That’s what you have to focus on. If you focus on when you’re not out there, your gonna struggle as a player.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Orlando Magic guard Anthony Black (0) is fouled by Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, left, while going up to shoot, as center Jaren Jackson Jr. (20) helps defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Utah Jazz center Jaren Jackson Jr. (20) reacts after scoring a 3-point basket against the Orlando Magic during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Utah Jazz center Jaren Jackson Jr. (20) is defended by Orlando Magic forward Tristan da Silva, left, during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi launched into a passionate defense of President Donald Trump Wednesday as she tried to turn the page from relentless criticism of the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, repeatedly shouting at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she postured herself as the Republican president's chief protector.
Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.
“You sit here and you attack the president and I’m not going to have it," Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. "I am not going to put up with it.”
With victims of Epstein seated behind her in the hearing room, Bondi forcefully defended the department's handling of the files related to the well-connected financier that have dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Trump's successes, when it was Republicans who initiated the furor over the files and Bondi herself fanned the flames by distributing binders to conservative influencers at the White House last year.
The hearing quickly devolved into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly lobbing insults at Democrats while insisting she was not “going to get in the gutter” with them. In one particularly fiery exchange, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to answer his questions, prompting the attorney general to call the top Democrat on the committee a “washed-up loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”
Trying to help Bondi amid an onslaught of Democratic criticism, Republicans tried to keep the focus on bread-and-butter law enforcement issues like violent crime and illegal immigration. Bondi repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding instead with attacks seemingly gleaned from news headlines as she sought to paint them as uninterested about violence in their districts. Democrats became exasperated as Bondi declined time and again to directly answer.
“This is pathetic. I am not asking trick questions," said Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi whether the Justice Department had questioned different Trump administration officials about their ties to Epstein. “The American people deserve to know.”
Bondi has struggled to move past the backlash over the Epstein files since handing out binders to a group of social media influencers at the White House in February 2025. The binders included no new revelations about Epstein, leading to even more calls from Trump’s base for the files to be released.
In her opening remarks, Bondi told Epstein victims to come forward to law enforcement with any information and about their abuse and said she “deeply sorry” for what they had suffered. She told the survivors that “any accusation of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.”
But she refused when pressed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal to turn and face the Epstein victims in the audience and apologize for what Trump's Justice Department has “put them through" and accused the Democrat of “theatrics.”
Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill comes a year into her tumultuous tenure that has amplified concerns that the Justice Department is using its law enforcement powers to target political foes of the president. Just a day earlier, the department sought to secure charges against Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging military service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But in an extraordinary rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment.
Turning aside criticism that the Justice Department under her watch has become politicized, Bondi touted the department’s work to reduce violent crime and said she was determined to restore the department to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.”
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for undoing actions under President Joe Biden's Justice Department that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives — including Trump, who was charged in two criminal cases that were abandoned after his 2024 election victory.
“What a difference a year makes," Jordan said. "Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions — upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keeping Americans safe."
Democrats, meanwhile, excoriated Bondi over haphazard redactions in the Epstein files that exposed intimate details about victims and also included nude photographs. A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.
“You’re siding with the perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims," Raskin told Bondi in his opening statement. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change the course. You're running a massive Epstein coverup right out of the Department of Justice."
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky lawmaker who broke with his party to advance the legislation that forced the released of the Epstein files, also took Bondi to task for the release of victims’ personal information, telling her: “Literally the worst thing you could do to survivors, you did.”
Bondi told Massie that he was only focused on the files because Trump is mentioned in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump-derangement syndrome."
Department officials have said they took pains to protect survivors, but that errors were inevitable given the volume of the materials and the speed at which the department had to release them. Bondi told lawmakers that the Justice Department took down files when they were made aware that they included victims’ information and that staff had tried to do their "very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation” mandating the release of the files.
After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded a review and determined that no Epstein “client list” existed and there was no reason to make public additional files. That set off a furor that prompted Congress to pass the legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the files.
The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represented a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote when Bondi suggested in a Fox News interview last year that it was sitting on her desk for review. Bondi later said she was referring to the Epstein files in total, not a specific client list.
Attorney General Pam Bondi listens as she testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington, as Jeffrey Epstein survivors, stand left. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives to testify before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives to testify before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., seated center, speaks as Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Attorney General Pam Bondi is sworn in before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Attorney General Pam Bondi listens as President Donald Trump speaks at an event on addiction recovery in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
