Wednesday’s vote by the U.S. House Oversight Committee was bad news for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Five Republicans joined Democrats to support the subpoena proposed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina to take sworn testimony from Bondi about how her Justice Department has handled the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
“We promised you answers,” Mace posted on X after the vote Wednesday. “We promised you transparency. We promised you justice. We are working. Every. Single. Day. To deliver. We just subpoenaed AG Pam Bondi, more to come.”
This is the same committee controlled by Republicans, led by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, that forcedBill and Hillary Clinton to testify behind closed doors last week.
It was a different one, the House Judiciary Committee, that took Bondi’s testimony last month in a four-hour-long televised session that was supposed to have satisfied calls, at least among Republicans, for greater transparency from President Donald Trump’s administration on the Epstein investigation. It did not. Instead, Bondi’s testimony inspired mockery on the left and even more questions from Mace and other Republicans on the right.
The consensus among lawmakers from both parties was that Bondi had been defiant, evasive and disrespectful toward the victims of Epstein’s abuse.
“She was asked the tough questions. She discussed the Dow and how high the stock market was doing,” Mace said after Bondi’s testimony on Feb. 12. “It’s shameful.”
Republicans on the Oversight Committee — Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Michael Cloud of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania — joined Mace and all committee Democrats in asking for the do-over.
As Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, a Democratic committee member, explained on Facebook: “Pam Bondi has a lot of explaining to do.”
The vote means that Comer is required to issue the subpoena for closed-door testimony from Bondi, where she will be under oath and subject to perjury laws. The New York Times reported that the conditions may force Bondi to address more directly questions from lawmakers that she avoided during her testimony last month. With no TV cameras, Bondi’s performance will be limited strictly to committee members asking the questions.
Should Bondi refuse to appear, she could be held in contempt of Congress.
That could be its own thing. But for now, Trump is faced with the failure of Bondi to make this issue go away. He’s backed her so far, but how much longer will he continue to do so as Bondi faces a return engagement with a skeptical Congress?
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
