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The Republican-controlled House oversight committee has voted to subpoena US attorney-general Pam Bondi, in an effort to force her to answer questions about documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.
In a surprise move on Wednesday, five Republicans on the House oversight committee joined with all of the Democrats on the panel to compel Bondi to testify. The vote laid bare simmering discontent among many Republican lawmakers over the Trump administration’s handling of files linked to the late child sex offender.
The effort was led by South Carolina Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace. The four other Republicans who voted to subpoena Bondi were Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Michael Cloud of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
The subpoena will pile political pressure on Bondi over the Department of Justice’s handling of documents related to the late convicted sex offender.
The attorney-general has previously discussed the Epstein case before lawmakers, but this would mark her first appearance before Congress to testify specifically about the disgraced financier.
Bondi is facing fierce criticism over the DoJ missing a congressionally mandated deadline to release all the Epstein files and for initially botching redactions that in some cases revealed victims’ names. She has also come under fire for failing to meet some of the victims.
The DoJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
James Comer, the Republican congressman who chairs the House oversight committee, on Tuesday announced that Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, would appear voluntarily before the panel for a transcribed interview.
The committee had sought Lutnick’s testimony after the commerce secretary appeared several times in files released by the DoJ. They included emails between Epstein and the commerce secretary, contradicting previous claims by Lutnick that he had cut ties with the disgraced financier in 2005.
The House oversight committee has also summoned Democrats with ties to Epstein in recent weeks. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton both testified before the committee in back-to-back closed-door depositions last week.
Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, accused Republicans on the panel of “partisan political theatre” and of seeking to protect the president, who has also faced uncomfortable questions about his links to Epstein.
Trump has not appeared in many of the trove of documents released by the DoJ. Bondi last month told the House Judiciary Committee there was “no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime”.
Democratic representative Ted Lieu accused Bondi of lying under oath, to which she responded: “Don’t you ever accuse me of a crime.”
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