Rep. Scott Perry votes to subpoena AG Pam Bondi over handling of Epstein files | fox43.com

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

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (PA-10) was among the five Republican members of Congress who joined Democrats to support the subpoena proposed by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

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

The Department of Justice had no immediate comment on the subpoena, according to the Associated Press.

Last year, Perry was one of several lawmakers who called for Bondi to appoint a special prosecutor to review the federal government's handling of the Epstein case. In a letter sent in July, Perry urged Bondi to launch a comprehensive probe into what he described as the “weaponization of federal agencies” and the U.S. Justice Department’s failure to fully prosecute Epstein and his associates.

“I write with serious concern regarding federal government weaponization of federal agencies, as well as the persistent lack of transparency and accountability in the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case,” Perry wrote. “The American People deserve answers and justice, particularly in matters involving grave allegations of criminality and misconduct by influential figures.”

FOX43 reached out to Perry's office, who provided the following statement on his vote: "My constituents demanded accountability, and my vote reflects that."

The Epstein files remain a political headache for the Trump administration more than a year after Bondi sparked backlash by handing out binders of documents to conservative influencers at the White House that included no bombshells.

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

After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the DOJ 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. That claim prompted Congress to pass legislation demanding that the DOJ release the files.

Last week, DOJ officials said that they were looking into whether the department had improperly withheld documents from the files.

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 Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 1980s.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.