Pam Bondi to appear before House oversight panel over Epstein files

The House oversight and government reform committee has said that former attorney general Pam Bondi will now appear before the panel on 29 May to answer questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and its release of the Epstein files.

The announcement of the date came shortly after the Democrats on the committee announced that they had filed a civil contempt resolution against Bondi after she did not appear for her deposition earlier this month.

On Wednesday morning, Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, announced the contempt resolution, saying in a statement that Bondi had “illegally defied our committee, skipped her deposition, and has refused to cooperate”, adding that Democrats had introduced the contempt measure “to hold her accountable”.

Bondi was subpoenaed by the committee last month, while she was still serving as attorney general. In the subpoena letter, Representative James Comer, the Republican who chairs the committee, wrote that there were “questions regarding the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act”.

The justice department has faced criticism in recent months over its compliance with the law, after the department failed to comply with the act’s 19 December deadline to release the relevant files, instead releasing what it claimed were the full files on 31 January. Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have also raised concerns that sensitive personal information was improperly disclosed in the files, while several lawmakers have also criticized some of the redactions in the documents. The department has maintained that it acted in accordance with the law.