Now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not comply with a subpoena for her testimony to members of Congress about Department of Justice investigations into Jeffrey Epstein after Donald Trump removed her from office last week.
In a letter to the House Oversight Committee, the Justice Department said Bondi will not appear for her previously scheduled deposition despite a subpoena for her testimony about the federal government’s handling of the cases against the late sex offender.
“The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on April 14 for a deposition since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General,” a committee spokesperson told The Independent. “The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, said Bondi is “trying to get out of her legal obligation to testify before the Oversight Committee about the Epstein files and the White House cover-up.”
“Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the Attorney General or not,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “She must come in to testify immediately, and if she defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges in the Congress. The survivors deserve justice.”
In a statement to The Independent, a Justice Department spokesperson said the agency “remains committed to working cooperatively with the Committee, but its subpoena to former AG Bondi was in her official capacity as Attorney General.”
“Because of the leadership transition at the Department, the subpoena no longer applies,” the spokesperson said.
“We kindly ask that you confirm that the subpoena is withdrawn,” Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis wrote in an undated letter from the Justice Department to the committee’s Republican chair James Comer.
“The Department remains committed to working cooperatively with the Committee and continues to believe that additional compulsory process is unnecessary in light of our demonstrated willingness to voluntarily assist your oversight efforts,” Davis added.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, both members of the committee, also sent a letter to Comer stressing that Bondi “remains obligated” to appear 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.
“On the contrary, it makes her sworn testimony even more important, especially with respect to actions she took as Attorney General, matters already under investigation, and decisions made under her leadership,” the lawmakers added.
A subpoena was issued with bipartisan support last month.
In a letter to Bondi at the time, Comer wrote that the panel was “reviewing the possible mismanagement” of the government’s investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted on sex trafficking charges in 2021.
Bondi has faced intense scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans over her handling of the Epstein files and the Justice Department’s approach to the investigation into the wealthy sex offender and his alleged co-conspirators. A much-anticipated release of Epstein documents handed out to far-right influencers at the White House last year contained mostly public information, and by the summer, the Justice Department and FBI declared there was “no basis” to release any more Epstein-related documents, sparking allegations of a government-wide cover up to protect powerful public figures who exploited and abused young girls.
Under legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump in November, the Justice Department was ordered to release all files connected to investigations into Epstein by December 19.
The Justice Department has since published millions of pages of files connected to the predator despite blowing deadlines for the full disclosure of all documents in the possession of federal law enforcement.
“As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department’s collection, review and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the Committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts,” Comer wrote in a letter to Bondi with her subpoena.
“The Committee may use the results of this investigation to inform legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations,” he added.
Bondi’s fierce defense of her term and the president’s agenda boiled over into shouting matches with lawmakers in a series of volatile congressional hearings in recent months.
In February, she deflected questions about Epstein to talk about the stock market and repeatedly chastised and insulted Democrats who questioned her.
“The Dow is over 50,000 right now,” she told the House Judiciary Committee after she was questioned about a lack of indictments against Epstein’s co-conspirators.
The Nasdaq is “smashing records” and Americans’ retirement accounts are “booming,” she said. “That’s what we should be talking about.”
In his first post-Bondi briefing on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to say whether Bondi would comply with the subpoena.
“I don’t have an answer to that,” he told reporters.
Blanche said “nobody has any idea” what led to Trump dismissing Bondi, other than the president.
“I grow tired of people in the media saying why President Trump did or didn’t do something because President Trump is the only one that knows that,” he said.
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