
The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi for a deposition on the US Department of Justice (DOJ)'s handling of the probe into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and its compliance with a law requiring all documents related to the disgraced financier to be made public.
The 24-19 bipartisan vote took place amid growing criticism of the DOJ's handling of the case and its failure to release all the Epstein files, with the vote on a motion introduced by South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace.
While Mace introduced the motion, every Democrat voted for it, as did GOP Reps Tim Burchett (Tennessee), Michael Cloud (Texas), Lauren Boebert (Colorado) and Scott Perry (Pennsylvania), according to a report by Axios.
"Our motions to subpoena the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights AND AG Pam Bondi have BOTH PASSED the Oversight Committee," Bondi wrote on X shortly after the vote, adding that the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights would release every taxpayer-funded settlement for congressional misconduct.
Mace also added that during her deposition, Bondi would be required to testify about "missing Epstein evidence", which she accused the DOJ of "hiding".
The Republican-backed move to subpoena Bondi came hours after Mace heavily criticized the US Attorney General on social media.
"AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not," Mace had posted on X earlier in the day.
"The Epstein case is one of the greatest cover-ups in American history. His global sex trafficking network is larger than what is being revealed. Three million documents have been released, and we still don't have the full truth. Videos are missing. Audio is missing. Logs are missing. There are millions more documents out there," the South Carolina Rep added, asserting that "The American people deserve answers, victims deserve justice."
The vote to subpoena Bondi comes after a delay in the release of the Epstein files, with the Donald Trump administration's DOJ announcing it would withhold millions of pages of the files.
After making more than 3 million documents public in late January, the DOJ said it would not release the rest of the Epstein files, which total more than 2.5 million documents.
Further, the DOJ has been accused by some members of Congress who had access to unredacted versions of the documents of taking down some of the files, Axios reported.
The development takes place months after Congress, in November, passed the Epstein Transparency Act with near-unanimous support, which required the DOJ to release all its files on the disgraced financier.
Shiladitya Ray specializes in covering geopolitics and science, and believes in communicating complex information through accessible, compelling, and if possible, visually engaging narratives. He has nearly 10 years of experience in digital media, and has been an Associate Editor with Mint for five months.<br><br> Shiladitya holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University, and two master's degrees in Development Studies and Sociology from TISS, Hyderabad and Delhi School of Economics respectively.<br><br> Shiladitya has also completed a Data Journalism fellowship with Google News Initiative (GNI), where he was a standout performer. He was subsequently invited as a speaker to GNI's AI Skills Workshop held in 2025, where he shared his previous work and experience in leveraging generative AI tools for data visualization with an audience of senior newsroom editors.<br><br> Prior to joining Mint, Shiladitya was a Chief Sub-Editor with Deccan Herald, and has previously worked for digital media startups NewsBytes and Opoyi. He has also served as an academic editor for Cactus Communications, where he worked with scholars on manuscripts meant for journal publication.<br><br> Shiladitya is based out of Delhi, is an avid reader, and has a keen interest in world affairs, science, philosophy, music, and football.