Former attorney general Pam Bondi will not appear on Capitol Hill next week for scheduled testimony about the Justice Department’s investigations of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, department officials said Wednesday.
But House Republicans signaled that she may not be off the hook yet.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted last month to subpoena Bondiafter several Republican members, joined by Democrats, soured on the Justice Department’s handling of the congressionally mandated release of millions of pages of material from its Epstein files. The committee had scheduled Bondi’s appearance for April 14.
But in a letter to committee chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) on Wednesday, department officials said Bondi would not show up and cited President Donald Trump’s decision to fire her last week.
The letter argued that Bondi had been subpoenaed in her official capacity as attorney general, a job she no longer holds.
“We kindly ask that you confirm that the subpoena is withdrawn,” Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post.
The decision presented the latest obstacle to Congress’s efforts to press Trump administration officials on their compliance with a law passed last year that required the Justice Department to make public its files on Epstein.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have accused the department of missing deadlines to release material in its possession, failing to completely shield victims’ personal information and redacting key details to protect prominent people in Epstein’s circle. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019.
A committee spokesperson suggested in a statement that it intends to continue to pursue Bondi’s testimony, despite the Justice Department’s response Wednesday.
“The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition,” it read.
Bondi has faced intense scrutiny for her oversight of the Justice Department’s effort to release its Epstein files.
Her handling of the matter played a role in Trump’s decision to remove her from her Cabinet-level post last week, The Post has reported. The president had fumed for months as the Epstein material continued to drive headlines and divide his own party.
Bondi has broadly defended the agency’s work and its efforts to comply with the law in previous testimony before Congress.
While she has fielded questioning over Epstein during at least two prior congressional hearings, members of the Oversight Committee voted in March to once again compel her testimony — a move that caught Comer off guard.
That push was led by Reps. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) and Ro Khanna (D-California), who said Wednesday that they would continue to call for Bondi’s appearance before the committee.
“The removal of Pam Bondi as Attorney General does not diminish the Committee’s legitimate oversight interests in seeking her sworn testimony or the need for accountability and information about files withheld from the public by the DOJ,” they wrote in a letter to Comer. “On the contrary, it makes her sworn testimony even more important.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, threatened more decisive action.
“She must come in to testify immediately,” he said in a statement. “If she defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges in the Congress. The survivors deserve justice.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency “remains committed to working cooperatively with the Committee.” Bondi did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
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