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The former Attorney General of the United States Pam Bondi appeared this Friday before the House Oversight Committee in a transcribed closed-door interview regarding the Justice Department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, and she refused to answer any questions that involved President Donald Trump.
The Democratic representative Robert Garcia reported that he asked questions about Trump five times without receiving any answers, and that the lawyers from the Department of Justice present in the room repeatedly intervened to block those questions related to the president.
Garcia stated that Bondi "would not speak or respond" to any questions involving Trump, which he described as a deliberate obstruction of congressional scrutiny.
The session was organized as a transcribed interview —not under oath and without video recording— instead of a public testimony with mandatory citation, a format that drew criticism from Democrats.
The committee chair, Republican James Comer, justified the private format by stating that Bondi had been "cooperative."
Alongside Bondi, the Deputy Secretary of Justice Harmeet Dhillon and the Assistant Deputy Secretary Jonathan Guynn appeared as "agency lawyers," who, according to the Department of Justice, were present to ensure an accurate record of the department's role in the implementation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
In his opening statement, Bondi acknowledged that there were "errors in the drafts" of the published documents, but defended that the Department of Justice had acted with "responsibility and transparency" and that it provided everything required under that law.
The bipartisan criticism focused on the fact that, while information about victims was exposed in the disclosed documents, data regarding potential perpetrators was censored.
Bondi was dismissed by Trump on April 2 amid mounting pressure regarding the handling of the Epstein case and a series of judicial setbacks, and was temporarily replaced by Todd Blanche, who had been Trump’s defense attorney in several criminal cases.
Representative Garcia had previously attempted to have Bondi declared in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena while still in office, and two Democratic representatives accused her of lying under oath during a Judiciary Committee hearing held on February 11, 2026.
The background of the hearing is extensive: since February 2025, the Department of Justice has released documents related to the Epstein case in several batches, including flight logs of Epstein's private jet in which Trump appears on at least seven occasions, although this alone does not imply illegal conduct.
In July 2025, a memo from the Department of Justice concluded that there was no incriminating "client list" of Epstein, which generated bipartisan backlash, and in November of that year, Trump signed the Epstein Records Transparency Act, which required the disclosure of documents within 30 days.
In December 2025, the Department of Justice published new files with unreleased photographs and FBI reports, but with extensive sections redacted, prolonging the controversy that once again places Bondi at the center of congressional scrutiny.
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