Former Attorney General Pam Bondi might be out of the Trump administration, but the pressure over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files is not going away.
After President Donald Trump announced Bondi was out and being replaced by Todd Blanche as acting attorney general, House Democrats said they would not let the axed Trump official off the hook for answering their questions under oath.
Bondi was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to answer their questions on April 14. It was not clear whether she would comply with the subpoena, as Democrats have accused her of helping orchestrate a cover-up and weaponize the Justice Department.
In a statement on Thursday, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement that Bondi “will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our Committee under oath.”
“She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell,” Garcia said.
His comment was echoed by other Democrats on the committee who want to ask her questions about her botched release of the Epstein files.
Bondi was subpoenaed by the committee early last month as part of its investigation into the convicted sex offender. Five Republicans joined Democrats to vote for her to be forced to go before the committee under oath.
“Even though she has been fired, she must still answer to Congress about the remaining documents, why there have been no new prosecutions, and why she participated in a cover-up,” said Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who helped lead the charge to release the Epstein files after Bondi refused to do so with the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Democratic Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost also said that Bondi still needed to go before the committee to answer questions under oath, stating, “It needs to happen.”
“The subpoena remains valid, and the American people deserve answers,” he said.
“Pam Bondi will soon leave her job as the Attorney General. My subpoena still stands. When the Oversight Committee moved to subpoena Bondi, I did it by name, not by or not as the sitting Attorney General of the U.S.,” said GOP Rep. Nancy Mace.
Rep. Summer Lee wrote on X: “Our work won’t stop now. Bondi must be held accountable for her role in weaponizing the DOJ and the cover-up of the Epstein files. I look forward to questioning her in her deposition. Survivors of Epstein’s abuse and the American people deserve an answer.”
Last month, Bondi and Blanche met with members of the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill for a briefing on the Epstein files, but it quickly devolved into chaos.
Democrats used their time to ask Bondi whether she would comply with the subpoena, but she remained ambiguous, claiming she would “follow the law.” In the end, Democrats stormed out of the meeting.
The then-attorney general was accused of using the meeting to try and avoid being hauled in to face questions under oath, but Democrats vowed it would not work.
The Daily Beast reached out to House Oversight Committee James Comer’s office for comment on what Bondi’s firing means for her appearance before the committee under a subpoena.
In February, Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for a blockbuster hearing where she was grilled over her handling of the Epstein files and given the chance to apologize to survivors for the botched handling of files after some released files, that should have been redacted, revealed victims’ names and identifying information.
Instead, she refused to turn and face the survivors and the families of survivors who were standing just feet away from her in the hearing room and melted down under the barrage of questions.
