When Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, they hoped to boost members’ confidence on their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Within half an hour, Democratic lawmakers had walked out.
The closed-door briefing for members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was held at the request of the Justice Department, which has spent the last year staving off accusations that it led a haphazard review of Epstein’s case, botched the redaction process and held back critical information from public release.
Bondi has also been subpoenaed by the Republican-led committee to appear for a deposition next month and answer questions under oath about the investigation.
The attorney general began Wednesday by telling the committee members that she was happy to answer any questions, a source familiar with the matter said, and that she brought Blanche with because he oversaw the release of the so-called Epstein files.
But almost immediately, the Democratic members on the committee announced that they would hold their questions for the attorney general’s on-the-record deposition, sources familiar with the matter said. What followed was, according to one source, an “unmitigated circus.”
Democrats pushed Bondi to say whether she still planned to appear for a deposition, according to sources. The attorney general said repeatedly that she planned to “follow the law,” the sources said — an answer Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel, later described as “infuriating” and part of a “White House cover up.”
Those tensions erupted when Democratic Rep. Summer Lee challenged the briefing’s purpose, according to people familiar with the matter, saying Bondi “hasn’t offered any information” about the Epstein investigation and the meeting had instead turned into “a hearing without the cameras.”
“You want me to scoot some chairs around and make a circle, would that make it feel more like a briefing,” committee Chairman James Comer said, adding, “Are you trying to find information or are you trying to embarrass the attorney general?”
Lee responded that Bondi could defend herself, and that she was only questioning Comer about the briefing’s logistics.
“You wasted three minutes of everybody’s time kind of b*tching,” Comer said, to audible gasps in the room.
Every Democratic lawmaker on the committee walked out of the briefing soon after. Outside, they told reporters that the briefing was a “complete disrespect of the process.” GOP Rep. Tim Burchett claimed the walkout was “all staged.”
The briefing continued with Republican lawmakers, who one source said asked detailed questions about the review process, whether there were any ongoing investigations and about Epstein’s relationship with former President Bill Clinton.
When Bondi emerged from the briefing, she repeated the same refrain about the subpoena that she told lawmakers inside the room: “I made it crystal clear, I will follow the law.”
“I personally don’t see any reason for her to do a deposition,” Comer told reporters when the meeting concluded. And some of the members who voted to subpoena Bondi, he said, “were pretty embarrassed by the way the Democrats acted in their lack of sincerity.”
