WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers fumed Wednesday at a closed briefing by Justice Department leaders on the Jeffrey Epstein dossier and said they would push to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions under oath about the case that has dogged the Trump administration.
Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Branch traveled to Capitol Hill to try to quell bipartisan dissatisfaction over the Justice Department’s handling of millions of documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.
But less than an hour into the briefing, Democrats walked out to protest the arrangement and said they would press for a subpoena to have Bundy testify under oath next month. Democrats said they repeatedly asked Bundy whether she would comply with the subpoena, but she was noncommittal.
“We want her to be sworn in because we don’t trust her,” Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost told reporters.
Republicans on the committee dismissed the Democratic move as political grandstanding. They said Bundy and Branch answered “substantial questions” and noted that the attorney general said she would comply with the law regarding the subpoenas.
“It’s clear Democrats don’t want survivors to get answers or justice; they just want some drama for their latest partisan stunt,” the Republican-led committee posted on social media.
Justice Department leaders had hoped that releasing documents related to the disgraced financier would end the political saga that has dogged the president’s second term, but the agency remains wary of questions and criticism about Epstein’s case and its management of the documents.
Bondi defended the Justice Department’s handling of the documents and accused Democrats of using the outrage over them to distract from Trump’s political success, even as some of the most vocal criticism came from members of the president’s own party.
The oversight committee issued a subpoena on Tuesday requiring Bundy to testify on April 14 to answer sworn questions about the Epstein case and investigative documents. Lawmakers accused the Justice Department of withholding too many documents and criticized the agency for making haphazard redactions that exposed victims’ intimate details.
The Justice Department called the subpoena “completely unnecessary,” noting that members of Congress have been invited to view unredacted Justice Department documents and that department leaders have been available to answer lawmakers’ questions.
The department sought to reassure lawmakers and the public that nothing was done to protect President Donald Trump, who said he struck up a friendship with Epstein years ago, or other high-profile figures close to Epstein from potential embarrassment. Justice Department leaders also rejected claims they were neglecting victims and insisted that while there was no evidence in the files to prosecute anyone else, they remained committed to investigating if new information emerged.
“I’m not trying to defend Epstein — I’m not,” Branch said this week in an interview with Katie Miller, the wife of Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller. “I do defend the job that the department is doing today, no matter what, the department is pursuing every perpetrator, and if there is a narrative that we are ignoring Epstein’s victims, that is false.”
The documents were disclosed under the Epstein Dossier Transparency Act, which was enacted after months of public and political pressure for the government to release files on the late financier and his close friend and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The criminal investigation into the financier has long angered Internet sleuths, conspiracy theorists and others who suspect a government cover-up and demand a full investigation.
After missing a congressionally mandated Dec. 19 deadline to release all documents, the Justice Department said it tasked hundreds of attorneys with reviewing the records to determine what needed to be redacted or deleted. The Justice Department said in January it would release more than 3 million pages of documents as well as more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
