Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is scheduled to testify under oath today before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, following a months-long standoff with lawmakers over the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigative files.
The high-stakes appearance comes after members of the committee filed a motion to hold Bondi in contempt, forcing a resolution for her to testify on May 29. The deposition was originally delayed after President Donald Trump removed Bondi from her role as attorney general in April.
Lawmakers from both parties are seeking answers regarding allegations that Federal Bureau of Investigation staff were instructed to flag mentions of Trump within the massive trove of documents. Recent record releases indicated that Trump’s name appeared in the files more than 1,000 times, and subsequent reporting revealed that documents containing specific allegations against him were withheld from the public during DOJ releases in 2025.
The controversy marks a sharp turn from February 2025, when a newly confirmed Bondi pledged total transparency regarding the notorious sex offender’s files. At the time, Bondi publicly stated that “you’re going to see some Epstein information released,” claiming that a highly anticipated list of Epstein’s clients was “sitting on my desk right now.” She later added that she had discovered a “truckload” of files and promised that “everything is going to come out to the public.”
By the summer of 2025, however, the DOJ shifted its stance. In May 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi privately informed Trump that his name was present in the files. On July 15, the DOJ abruptly announced it would cease releasing Epstein documents, stating that the client list Bondi previously referenced did not actually exist.
Shortly after, Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, published a letter disclosing information that FBI agents were ordered to flag Trump’s name. During congressional testimonies in October 2025 and February 2026, Bondi repeatedly refused to answer questions about who issued those directives or how the internal investigation was conducted.
In response to the gridlock, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025, which legally required the DOJ to release the full investigative files by December 19, 2025. Though the agency missed the initial deadline, it eventually produced more than three million pages of documents in January 2026.
Outside oversight groups have intensified legal pressure alongside the congressional probe. Yesterday, the watchdog group American Oversight filed a new lawsuit against the DOJ and the FBI, aiming to compel the release of internal review protocols, communications regarding withheld materials, and encrypted messages from senior officials. This follows an April 2026 production where the FBI turned over just 90 pages of heavily redacted emails and a single set of processing instructions from March 2025. A federal court has since ordered the DOJ and FBI to begin rolling monthly productions of at least 350 pages of non-exempt records, starting May 30.
Today’s oversight hearing represents what lawmakers view as a final opportunity to question Bondi directly about whether government staff were instructed to shield public officials from scrutiny, which is explicitly prohibited under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Previous committee subpoenas have already brought several high-profile details to light, including a birthday book drawing Trump reportedly made for Epstein, and an email from Epstein claiming that Trump “knew about the girls.”
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