Washington — The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted Wednesday to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi for testimony as part of its investigation into the federal government’s handling of the case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The panel approved a motion from Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, to issue the subpoena to Bondi, with five Republicans in all joining with Democratic members in support of the bid.
The GOP lawmakers who supported the effort to subpoena Bondi are: Mace, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, Texas Rep. Michael Cloud and Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Oversight Committee had issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for documents related to Epstein last August. Legislation passed with bipartisan support from Congress last year, which was signed by President Trump in November, also required the Justice Department to disclose all material from its investigation into Epstein. Millions of records were made public as a result of the law, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, with the last tranche of documents released in late January.
Ahead of the vote, Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky who chairs the Oversight Committee, said Bondi has offered to provide a briefing to members at the Justice Department on the Epstein-related files and “anything else pertaining to that.”
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said the public has “significant questions” about the Justice Department’s process for releasing the material from its investigation into Epstein.
“The attorney general has gone to speak, obviously, to other committees,” he said. “I think it’s important that she is in front of our committee. She can directly answer questions about the release of the files, about transparency, about ensuring that victims and survivors are protected.”
Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last month for a hearing focused on oversight of the Justice Department, during which she faced sharp questions from Democrats about the department’s handling of the Epstein files. Democratic lawmakers accused Bondi of orchestrating a “cover-up” that shielded people whose names appeared in the millions of pages of material, while failing to redact the names of survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
The Justice Department has also been criticized for the pace of the release of the documents. The Epstein Files Transparency Act required all of the material to be released by Dec. 19, 2025, but the Justice Department made the documents public in batches. The department also faced criticism over the first tranche, which contained few mentions of Mr. Trump, though records disclosed in the second wave did mention the president. Mr. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing.
A CBS News analysis found that the Justice Department took down tens of thousands of files, some of which contained explicit images or survivors’ information. But the reasons for the removal of other files, such as a call log with redacted names, are unclear.
The attorney general is not the only member of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet who could appear before the committee to answer questions about Epstein. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, under scrutiny for his ties to the disgraced financier, agreed to an interview with the panel, Comer announced Tuesday. A date for his testimony has not yet been set.
Lutnick was among the slew of powerful people revealed to have been in communication with Epstein after the Justice Department made public its trove of records stemming from its probe. While Lutnick had said he cut off contact with Epstein in 2005, documents showed they communicated in the years between Epstein’s guilty plea to state prostitution charges in Florida in 2008 and his death by suicide in 2019, after he was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges.
As part of its investigation into the government’s handling of Epstein’s case, the Oversight Committee has sought testimony from several former officials and others who were close to him, as well as documents from Epstein’s estate.
Investigators held closed-door depositions with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month, videos of which were released earlier this week.
The former president said of Epstein, “There’s nothing that I saw when I was around him that made me realize he was trafficking women.” Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, said she knew “nothing about him.”
