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Washington: United States lawmakers have voted to subpoena Donald Trump’s attorney-general, Pam Bondi, before a congressional committee over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the release of the so-called Epstein files.
Members of the Republican-majority House Oversight Committee voted 24-19 in favour of the subpoena, with five Republicans joining the Democrats to support the move.
The subpoena would require Bondi to provide a taped, closed-door deposition to the committee. It will later become public.
Bondi’s Justice Department was responsible for releasing more than 3 million pages of documents relating to its investigation of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
But she and the department have been criticised for failing to release all the documents, redacting the names of some accused co-conspirators and releasing the personal information of some Epstein victims.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Bondi’s subpoena.
Bondi already appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in February, where she was grilled about the Epstein files and lashed out at Democrats, calling one a “washed-up loser lawyer”.
She also said members of Congress should focus on Trump’s achievements, such as the booming share market. “The Dow is over 50,000 right now,” Bondi told the hearing. “That’s what we should be talking about.”
Former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, a former secretary of state, were the last two people to be subpoenaed by the committee investigating the Epstein matter, and gave evidence last week. It was the first time a sitting or former president had been compelled to testify before Congress.
Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman who led the push to subpoena Bondi, said the committee wanted to know why Bondi’s Justice Department was “more focused on shielding the powerful than delivering justice”.
“The Epstein case is one of the greatest cover-ups in American history. His global sex-trafficking network is larger than what is being revealed,” Mace said.
“Three million documents have been released, and we still don’t have the full truth. Videos are missing. Audio is missing. Logs are missing. There are millions more documents out there.”
The committee was preparing to subpoena another member of Trump’s cabinet, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was a next-door neighbour of Epstein for years and met him on several occasions, including on a visit to Epstein’s private island in 2012.
Lutnick agreed on Tuesday (US time) to appear voluntarily before the committee. “I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the committee,” the committee chairman, Republican congressman James Comer, said.
The ongoing congressional activity reflects a determination by Democrats and some Republicans to keep the Epstein issue alive despite the publication of the Epstein files having no material impact on Trump, despite thousands of mentions, including complaints to the FBI that the White House has dismissed as spurious.
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