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Attorney General Pam Bondi was subpoenaed Tuesday (March 17, 2026) to reply questions from Congress astir the Justice Department's enactment trafficking probe of Jeffrey Epstein and the agency's handling of millions of files related to the disgraced financier.
Ms. Bondi was ordered to look for a deposition connected April 14 by the Committee connected Oversight and Government Reform aft a ballot earlier this period that was supported by 5 Republicans.
The Justice Department's nonaccomplishment to fend disconnected the subpoena from the Republican-led committee underscores wide discontent among President Donald Trump's ain basal implicit Bondi's absorption of the reappraisal and merchandise of a trove of documents from the transgression probe into Epstein.
“The Committee has questions regarding the Department of Justice’s handling of the probe into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman, said successful a missive to Ms. Bondi.
“As Attorney General, you are straight liable for overseeing the Department’s collection, review, and determinations regarding the merchandise of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the Committee truthful believes that you person invaluable penetration into these efforts,” helium wrote.
The Department connected Tuesday (March 17, 2026) called the subpoena “completely unnecessary.” Ms. Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were expected to supply a backstage briefing Wednesday to members of the committee.
“Lawmakers person been invited to presumption the unredacted files for themselves astatine the Department of Justice, and the Attorney General has ever made herself disposable to talk straight with members of Congress,” the section said successful a statement. The bureau said it looks guardant to "continuing to supply policymakers with the facts.”
The Trump medication has faced changeless governmental headaches since the rollout of the files began successful December, with critics accusing the section of hiding definite documents and over-redacting files. In different cases, victims person slammed the section for sloppy redactions that revealed their delicate information.
The Justice Department has fiercely defended its handling of the Epstein files, saying it worked arsenic rapidly and diligently arsenic imaginable to reappraisal and merchandise millions of documents required nether the law. The section has denied immoderate accusations that it utilized redactions to support definite radical oregon improperly withheld definite materials. And it has said it instantly worked to hole immoderate redaction errors raised by victims.
