(Washington) The US House Oversight Committee on Tuesday subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify on the government’s handling of cases related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Published at
Mme Bondi will appear in closed session on April 14 for a formal deposition.
Epstein, who officially committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving minors, had long-standing ties to political and business elites.
The case remains politically sensitive, with a number of controversies concerning the disclosure of investigation files and the extent of the ex-financier’s network.
In a letter addressed to Mr.me Bondi, the committee’s Republican chairman, James Comer, said the committee was examining the Justice Department’s compliance with a law requiring the disclosure of documents related to the Epstein case and expressed concerns about the way those documents had been handled and made public.
“As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department’s collection, review, and decisions regarding the release of records pursuant to the Epstein Records Transparency Act, and the Committee therefore believes that you have valuable information on this matter,” Comer said.
Elected officials from both parties have criticized the way the department has made these records public, arguing that much of them remains undisclosed or has been largely redacted.
According to congressional and media analyses, the Justice Department has released about half of the six million pages in its possession, while tens of thousands of documents have been withheld, including those containing explicit content or identifying victims.
Some lawmakers also raised concerns about missing documents, including videos that they say should have been turned over according to the law.
Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who filed the motion to subpoena Mme Bondi subpoenaed, accused the department of withholding information and said lawmakers needed answers.
Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, are due to brief members of the commission behind closed doors this week, but elected officials stressed that these sessions would not prevent the attorney general from being summoned for formal testimony.
