Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before House Oversight Committee in closed-door interview on Epstein file handling

Bondi arrived Friday morning at the Rayburn House Office Building for the transcribed interview, her first appearance before Capitol Hill since being ousted as attorney general in early April. The House Oversight Committee has been conducting a broad investigation into Epstein that spans multiple presidential administrations, and lawmakers are seeking information on how prosecutors handled the mandated file release, what decisions were made regarding Epstein associates, and whether President Trump was involved in the process, according to the AP.

The interview format itself became a point of contention before testimony began. Democrats on the committee, led by Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia of California, pressed committee chair Rep. James Comer of Kentucky to record the session on video and release it to the public, as was done with the depositions of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Comer said he allowed the transcribed format — rather than a sworn deposition — as an incentive for Bondi to cooperate, and said a transcript would be released. "Hopefully that will be good enough," Comer said, according to the AP.

Bondi faces criticism from survivors and Democrats over contradictory statements about file contents, the release of victims' personal information without proper redactions, and the omission of files related to President Trump. Bondi has argued that some errors occurred because government lawyers faced a tight timeline imposed by Congress to review millions of pages. "To address the Epstein files, more than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages," Bondi said at a February hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, according to NPR.