House Democrats walked out of a closed-door hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi Wednesday while she was briefing lawmakers on the Epstein files a day after being subpoenaed to testify in mid-April.
Democratic members of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee told reporters that Bondi, who was joined by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, would not commit to complying with the subpoena for her sworn testimony on April 14 to answer questions about the DOJ’s handling of records related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the panel, said Bondi “refused on multiple occasions to commit to following the subpoena.”
After the briefing, Bondi told reporters that she “made it crystal clear I will follow the law,” when asked about whether she would comply with the subpoena.
The X account for Republicans on the committee said in a post that “Bondi stated she would follow the law regarding her subpoena.”
The committee voted 24-19 this month to subpoena Bondi, with five Republicans joining Democrats in favor of the move.
Committee chair James Comer, who voted against the effort, announced Tuesday that the subpoena had been sent. He sidestepped Wednesday when asked if the committee would hold Bondi in contempt of Congress if she didn’t comply.
“Well, we’ll have to, we’ll have to talk about that,” Comer, R-Ky., said, before criticizing Democrats.
Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., told reporters that she asked Comer whether he would compel Bondi to attend the April deposition and move to hold her in contempt if she refuses.
“Instead of answering as an adult, he said that I was b—-ing, which is again, something that would not be allowed if we were operating under the rules of this committee, because engaging in personalities is actually something that we are not able to do,” Lee said.
Comer confirmed Lee’s characterization of their exchange.
“I’ve never seen members storm out of a briefing with the attorney general, and the entire leaders of the Department of Justice are there to answer questions, and they don’t ask a single question,” Comer added.
A DOJ spokesperson on Tuesday called the Bondi subpoena “completely unnecessary” and said the attorney general “continues to have calls and meetings with members of Congress on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which is why the Department offered to brief the committee.”
At a House Oversight Committee hearing last month, Bondi praised the Justice Department’s efforts to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which ordered the public release of most information from millions of pages of files from the Epstein investigation.
Many Epstein survivors and members of Congress have denounced the Justice Department’s handling of the files, some of which have included many redactions when released. Survivors pointed out that some information of possible accomplices was redacted, while other information about victims was left untouched when it should have been blacked out.
“We’re proud of the work we’ve done on this,” Bondi said Wednesday.
Blanche, a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, has been a central figure in the Justice Department’s review and release of the Epstein files. In July, he conducted a nine-hour interview of Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, a move that former prosecutors described as highly unusual.
Blanche defended Trump in January after the Justice Department removed over a dozen photographs, including one that pictured the president, from a release of the files, arguing that the decision had “nothing to do with President Trump.”
The Justice Department released previously unseen documents from the Epstein files this month that included new summaries and notes from interviews the FBI conducted with a woman who had made allegations against Trump, who has not been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing.
Trump has also denied any wrongdoing.
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