Attorney General Pam Bondi leaves a closed-door briefing about the Epstein files with members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Under the rules of the oversight committee, Bondi received a subpoena requiring her to appear. The panel’s Republican chairman said he sent the summons reluctantly. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times)
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WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi would not explicitly commit on Wednesday to appear for a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and its release of material about him, telling lawmakers only that she would follow the law.
During a private briefing Wednesday on the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein and its handling of files on him, Democratic lawmakers pressed Bondi whether she still planned to appear for a deposition.
Under the committee’s rules, the panel’s Republican chair, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, issued a subpoena to Bondi requiring her to appear, a move that was forced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers over Comer’s objections.
After being asked repeatedly, Bondi said that she would follow the legal requirements, several Democratic lawmakers told reporters afterward.
“I made it crystal clear, I will follow the law,” she told reporters after the hearing.
After the hearing, Comer said that he would proceed with trying to schedule the deposition. “That’s what we plan on doing,” he said.
But Comer would not say whether he would pursue holding Bondi in contempt if she did not agree to appear, and he acknowledged that he sent the subpoena reluctantly.
“I, personally, don’t see any reason for her to do a deposition,” he said.
Democratic lawmakers walked out of the briefing before it ended, accusing Bondi and Todd Blanche, her deputy attorney general, of avoiding their questions. They criticized Bondi for declining to explicitly agree to the deposition and argued that Wednesday’s briefing, which the Justice Department offered before Bondi was sent a subpoena, was an effort to avoid it.
“She’s not under oath, and she would not commit to actually going under oath and following the law,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the committee. “And so we have been frustrated.”
But Comer argued that Democrats squandered their opportunity to ask Bondi substantive questions, accusing them of using the hearing for theatrics.
“They came out clutching their pearls, complaining that she wasn’t answering any questions and things like that,” he said. “The first three people to ask questions, all they did was complain.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Michael Gold/Tierney L. Cross
c. 2026 The New York Times Company
