The Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, was this Tuesday, March 17, subpoenaed by Congress to answer questions about the Justice Department’s investigation into millions of files associated with sexual crimes by Jeffrey Epstein.
The attorney general’s testimony before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is scheduled for April 14, following a vote that took place earlier this month, which had the support of five Republicans.
“The Committee has questions about the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” said Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, in a letter addressed to Bondi.
The congressman also stressed that the attorney general is “directly responsible for overseeing the Department of Justice’s collection, verification, and decisions regarding release of files, in accordance with the Epstein Archives Transparency Act”, and has “valuable knowledge” about this work.
The Department of Justice, in turn, classified the subpoena as “completely unnecessary”, showing its willingness to continue “delivering the facts” to members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
“Lawmakers were invited to review undrafted files at the Department of Justice, and the attorney general has always made herself available to speak directly with members of Congress,” the department responded in a statement.
The Department of Justice defended how it has acted in relation to the Epstein case, saying it worked as quickly and diligently as possible to review and disclose millions of documents required by law.
The organization also highlighted its availability to immediately correct any drafting errors pointed out by the victims, and also rejected the accusations of hiding some of the documents or redacting others.
Convicted of sexual crimes, Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal prison in New York in 2019.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, maintained social relations with Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s, frequenting the same high society circles in New York and Florida, but claims to have ‘broken up’ with the businessman long before he was investigated by the authorities.
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