Pam Bondi to answer US House committee questions over Epstein files release - ABC News

Pam Bondi speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in February. (AP: J.Scott Applewhite)

In short:

The House Oversight Committee voted to question Pam Bondi over her handling of files regarding the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

Republicans joined Democrats to support the subpoena.

What's next?

The Justice Department says it is looking into whether it improperly withheld documents.

The US House Oversight Committee has voted to subpoena Attorney-General Pam Bondi to answer questions over the Justice Department's handling of files regarding the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

Five Republicans joined Democrats to support the subpoena proposed by Republican representative Nancy Mace in a sign of continued frustration among conservatives with the department's review and release of a tranche of documents related to the convicted sex offender.

The move amounted to a sharp rebuke of Ms Bondi by Republicans who have been clamouring for information about Epstein's abuse of young girls and his interactions with rich and powerful people.

"The American people want answers on the Epstein files, and so do we," Republican Nancy Mace said in a post on X.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the subpoena.

Pam Bondi handed out binders of documents to conservative influencers in February 2025. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)

The vote comes more than a year after Ms Bondi sparked backlash by handing out binders of documents to conservative influencers that included information that had largely already been in the public domain.

Ms Bondi has defended the department's handling of the files and has accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Mr Trump's successes, although some of the most vocal criticism has come from members of the president's own party.

Former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, were questioned in depositions last week over the former Democratic president's connections to Epstein from more than two decades ago.

After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded a review and determined that no Epstein "client list" existed and there was no reason to make additional files public.

Pam Bondi has defended the department's handling of the files. (Reuters: Kent Nishimura)

That set off a furore that prompted Congress to pass legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the files.

The Justice Department said last week that it was looking into whether it had improperly withheld documents from the files after several news organisations reported that some records involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against Mr Trump were not among those released to the public.

That announcement followed news reports saying that a massive tranche of records released by the Justice Department did not include several summaries of interviews that the FBI conducted with an unidentified woman who came forward after Epstein's 2019 arrest and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by both Mr Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 1980s.