Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday stormed out of a closed-door briefing on the Jeffrey Epstein files by Justice Department leaders and said they would push to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions under oath about the case that has plagued the Trump administration. Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had gone to Capitol Hill to try to quell bipartisan frustration over the department's handling of millions of files related to Epstein's sex trafficking investigation, the AP reports.
But less than an hour into the briefing, Democrats walked out in protest of the arrangement and said they would press to enforce a subpoena for Bondi to appear for a sworn deposition next month. Democrats said they asked Bondi repeatedly whether she would comply with the subpoena, but she was noncommittal. "We want her under oath because we do not trust her," Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost told reporters. Republicans on the committee dismissed the move by Democrats as political grandstanding. They said that Bondi and Blanche answered "substantiative questions" and that the attorney general said she would follow the law regarding her subpoena.
"It's clear Democrats don't want answers or justice for survivors; they just want theatrics for their latest partisan stunt," the Republican-led committee said in a social media post. Lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of withholding too many files and criticized the agency for haphazard redactions that exposed intimate details about victims. The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued a subpoena for Bondi to appear for a deposition on April 14 to answer questions under oath about Epstein's case and the investigative files.
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