A key House committee voted on Wednesday to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to compel her to testify about the Justice Department’s investigation of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and its release of investigative material about him, after Republicans sided with Democrats to insist on it.
Over the objection of the panel’s Republican chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, five Republicans on the Oversight Committee joined Democrats to force approval of the subpoena, which was introduced by Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina.
The vote, 24 to 19, was a striking rebuke of a top Trump administration official by members of President Trump’s own party at a time when the Republican-controlled Congress has generally marched in lock-step with him.
It was also the second time in the past year that Republican members of the Oversight Committee, the House’s chief investigative panel, had crossed party lines to force action around Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in federal custody in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
The Republicans who voted for the subpoena were Ms. Mace and Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Michael Cloud of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Under the committee’s rules, Mr. Comer will be required to issue the subpoena for a closed-door deposition, in which Ms. Bondi will be under oath.
Before the committee voted, Mr. Comer tried to fend off the subpoena, saying that Ms. Bondi’s chief of staff told him that the attorney general would brief lawmakers about her department’s investigation into Mr. Epstein.
During the vote, as Ms. Mace’s effort looked poised to succeed, he made a last-ditch attempt and reminded members that the “attorney general has offered to come in and give briefings.”
But lawmakers from both parties have been angered by the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, dating back to Ms. Bondi’s reversal last year on a promise to release previously undisclosed material in his case.
Ms. Mace and Ms. Boebert were among just four Republicans who broke with Mr. Trump last year and joined Democrats to force the House to vote on a bill that mandated the release of the files. Faced with the certain prospect of that measure passing, Republican leaders dropped their objections, and Mr. Trump signed the bill into law.
But instead of quieting the clamor, the release of the documents has seemed only to stoke it. Members of Congress have accused Ms. Bondi and her top deputy, Todd Blanche, of slow-walking the release of the files or improperly withholding material in violation of the law.
During hearings last month, Ms. Bondi faced withering criticism over the Justice Department’s inadvertent release of victims’ identities and sweeping redactions that lawmakers said violated the Epstein law.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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