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 subpoena 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, 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.