Now that Pam Bondi is no longer attorney general, the Department of Justice says she doesn’t have to testify to Congress about the Jeffrey Epstein case. Democrats are already threatening to hold her in contempt.
“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. The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition,” a spokesperson for the Republican leadership of the House Oversight Committee said.
The Democrats on the committee immediately called for Bondi to still testify despite her firing. Despite the DOJ saying she will not appear April 14, members of the committee still expect her to appear.
“Now that Pam Bondi has been fired, she’s trying to get out of her legal obligation to testify before the Oversight Committee about the Epstein files and the White House cover-up,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said. “Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the Attorney General or not. She must come in to testify immediately, and if she defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges in the Congress.”
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Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who introduced the subpoena for Bondi, also still insists she testify.
“Pam Bondi cannot escape accountability simply because she no longer holds the office of Attorney General. Our motion to subpoena Pam Bondi, which was passed by the Oversight Committee, was for Bondi by name, not by title,” Mace wrote in an X post.
Mace wrote a letter, co-signed by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, to Oversight Chair James Comer, urging him to “publically reaffirm that Pam Bondi must appear on April 14.”
“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,” the lawmakers wrote. “On the contrary, it makes her sworn testimony even more important.”
In a statement to NOTUS, a DOJ spokesperson said, “The Department of Justice 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.”
In March, the committee voted 24-19 to subpoena Bondi to testify on the Epstein files. Members in both parties had been frustrated by DOJ’s slow release of the files, which did not meet the original deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act that became law in November.
The Hill obtained and reported on a letter the DOJ sent Comer, which only addressed the chair and did not copy Democrats onto the correspondence. In the letter, Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis asked Comer to “confirm that the subpoena is withdrawn.”
“Ms. Bondi no longer holds that office. As a result, because Ms. Bondi no longer can testify in her official capacity as Attorney General, the Department’s position is that the subpoena no longer obligates her to appear,” Davis wrote.
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