The House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi over the Justice Department’s handling of files in the Epstein investigation.
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Published March 5, 2026
The House Oversight Committee has voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify before the committee regarding the Department of Justice’s record-keeping related to the investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The motion, introduced by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, passed Wednesday by a vote of 24-19, with five Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the subpoena, amid an unusual bipartisan rebuke.
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Committee members are seeking clarification on how sensitive files may have been handled, archived or withheld during the Justice Department’s long-running investigation into the deceased sex offender’s illegal network.
“AG Bondi will testify about the missing evidence against Epstein – video, audio and documents hidden by the Justice Department,” South Carolina’s Mace said in a post on X.
She said, “The American people deserve transparency. Survivors deserve justice. We are delivering on both of those things. Accountability is coming.”
The Epstein file continues to plague President Donald Trump’s administration more than a year after Attorney General Bondy faced intense criticism for sharing a “private” binder of documents containing no new revelations with conservative influencers.
Tensions then peaked in July 2025, when the Justice Department claimed there was no Epstein “client list” and a bipartisan Congress ordered full release of all documents from the investigation.
But since the documents began being released in December, the administration has come under fire for allegedly fumbling the process and over-editing files, although Justice Department officials insist they are simply moving the millions of classified pages through legal scrutiny as quickly as possible.
Bondi staunchly defended the Justice Department’s handling of the files, accusing Democrats of stirring up controversy over the documents to distract from President Trump’s accomplishments in office.
But much of the fiercest backlash against Bondi has come from within the president’s own party, with conservative lawmakers and allies expressing frustration with the lack of transparency and new revelations despite the release of a trove of documents.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a prominent Republican and vocal opponent of President Trump, who co-sponsored the resolution with Rep. Mace on Wednesday, argued that the public has a right to know whether their tax dollars were used to secretly settle sexual harassment lawsuits involving members of Congress.
In a statement posted to X, Massey emphasized that government-funded settlements for personal torts should not be shielded from the taxpayers who paid for them.
The move to seek Bondi’s testimony comes a week after the Justice Department announced it was investigating whether documents were improperly withheld from Trump’s files after multiple news outlets reported that some records containing unsubstantiated accusations by women against Trump were not included in the public record.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, recently appeared separately in closed-door depositions before the committee, addressing Bill Clinton’s long-standing relationship with Epstein more than two decades ago.
