Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify next month in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Republicans on the panel announced Wednesday, shortly after Democrats moved to hold her in contempt following her failure to appear for a previously scheduled deposition.
Republican lawmakers on the panel said Bondi will give testimony on May 29, calling Democrats’ filing of a civil contempt resolution “theater and completely unnecessary."
“Today, we're marking up legislation to tackle fraud at the federal level and all Democrats can talk about is Epstein,” Oversight Committee Republicans said in an X post announcing the date for Bondi’s deposition.
The Republican lawmakers made the announcement in a response to an earlier post from their Democratic colleagues, in which the House Oversight Democrats announced they had filed contempt charges against Bondi. In a statement, the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, called calling the former Attorney General’s testimony and cooperation in the probe “crucial” due to what they described as her “extensive personal knowledge” about the Administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein files.
“Pam Bondi has illegally defied our committee, skipped her deposition, and has refused to cooperate. We have introduced a contempt resolution, to hold her accountable,” Garcia said.
The House Oversight Committee last month subpoenaed Bondi to testify before lawmakers in its probe into Epstein. She was set to give a closed-door deposition on April 14, but the Justice Department said that she would no longer appear on the date as scheduled after Trump ousted her from her role as Attorney General on April 2.
Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis wrote at the time that “the subpoena no longer obligates” Bondi to testify before the Oversight Committee, since it was issued to her in her professional capacity in a position she no longer occupied.
Several members of the committee were quick to push back on the argument that Bondi was no longer compelled to testify following her firing by Trump, however. “Bondi’s removal as Attorney General doesn’t erase her obligation to testify and does not end Congressional oversight,” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina wrote on X.
A spokesperson for the committee said they would reach out to the former Attorney General’s personal lawyer to “discuss next steps regarding rescheduling her deposition,” while Democrats on the panel said that if she did not appear they would seek to hold her in contempt.
Following the announcement of the rescheduled deposition date on Wednesday, House Oversight Democrats claimed credit—despite Republicans’ disparaging remarks about their earlier post announcing the contempt resolution.
“Well look at this … 45 minutes after we file contempt charges against Pam Bondi for defying her subpoena to testify, @GOPoversight finally announces a date for her appearance,” the Oversight Democrats account wrote. “When Democrats fight, we win. And we won’t stop until we get justice.”
Bondi has faced widespread criticism and controversy over the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files under her leadership. The department was required to release all its files related to the disgraced financier by Dec. 19 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress in November and signed into law by Trump soon afterward. But the DOJ failed to meet that deadline, prompting outcry from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
The department has also drawn criticism for redacting the names of some high-profile individuals who appeared to be associated with Epstein from the files while failing to obscure potentially identifying information about victims.
“The survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse deserve answers,” Garcia said in his Wednesday statement, “and the American people deserve the truth.”
