House GOP leaves Democrats in the dark as they reschedule Bondi testimony on Epstein files

WASHINGTON (CN) — Democrats on the House Oversight Committee were furious Wednesday after the panel’s Republican leadership said it had agreed on a new date for former Attorney General Pam Bondi to appear for a closed-door deposition next month — apparently without any bipartisan coordination.

The news came just minutes after committee Democrats, in the dark about the GOP deal with Bondi, said they would move forward with contempt of Congress proceedings against the former Justice Department official, who failed to appear for an initial meeting as part of the House’s investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Lawmakers on the Oversight Committee have sparred for weeks over Bondi’s planned closed-door meeting with the panel aimed at examining her handling of documents related to the Epstein probe. The committee in March approved a subpoena for the then-attorney general directing her to travel to Capitol Hill on April 14 for a deposition.

But after she was removed from her post earlier this month by President Donald Trump, the Justice Department argued she was no longer legally bound by the congressional summons, which it argued was issued “in her capacity” as attorney general.

Committee Republicans have said they were working with Bondi’s personal counsel to reschedule. But with a new deposition date still elusive, Democrats on Wednesday morning announced that they’d move forward with proceedings to hold the former attorney general in contempt of Congress for defying a lawful subpoena.

“As far as we’re concerned, we’ve now spent weeks with zero communication from somebody that was legally obligated to appear, so we’re filing contempt charges,” California Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters.

Minutes after Garcia’s comments, however, Oversight Committee Republicans said that they had in fact reached a deal with Bondi’s lawyers for a May 29 deposition, calling the Democratic contempt charges “theater and completely unnecessary.”

The Justice Department in its own statement appeared to claim Democrats knew ahead of time that Bondi’s deposition had been rescheduled.

“It appears @OversightDems ‘forgot’ that earlier this week former AG Bondi agreed to appear for a transcribed interview next month,” the agency said in a post on X.

But Kentucky Representative James Comer, the Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, acknowledged to Courthouse News that he hadn’t looped Democrats in on the new deposition date before Wednesday’s announcement.

“I don’t even talk to them,” said Comer, who added that he didn’t know whether Democrats had any foreknowledge of his deal with the former attorney general.

“All they do is complain,” said the Kentucky congressman. “There’s no concern for the victims for getting the truth to the American people.”

Asked by Courthouse News whether the Democrats’ contempt charges forced his hand in announcing the new deposition date, Comer said Republicans had rescheduled the meeting “as quick as we could get the date confirmed.” Prodding his Democratic colleagues as “drama queens,” the Oversight Committee chairman added that he didn’t consider Bondi to be “in the top ten” most important witnesses in the House Epstein files investigation.

“They just want to create false narratives that there’s a cover up and all this other stuff,” he said.

Democrats, for their part, also said they were unaware their GOP counterparts had set a new date for Bondi’s closed-door meeting with lawmakers.

“Bondi and Oversight Republicans have had zero communication with Democrats on this issue, which James Comer confirmed on the record," a spokesperson for Oversight Committee Democrats told Courthouse News. “We forced them to act and they’re trying to continue their shameless cover-up.”

The Democrats also pushed back on framing from the Justice Department that they were already aware Bondi’s deposition was rescheduled, calling the agency’s comments a “bald-faced lie.”

Further reports Wednesday indicated that Republicans had reached a deal with Bondi under which she would give a transcribed interview, rather than a deposition, to House lawmakers. It’s a format that uses different rules than a formal deposition.

During her time as the Trump administration’s attorney general, Bondi was central to the congressional investigation into the Epstein files.

During a testy hearing in the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year, the former Justice Department official went head-to-head with both Democrats and Republicans who slammed her agency for its sluggish compliance with federal law directing it to publish all documents related to the federal Epstein investigation.

An animated Bondi repeatedly insulted lawmakers on the panel and insisted that Democrats had seized on the Epstein investigation as a political cudgel against Trump, who had a relationship with the late New York financier and convicted pedophile but has denied any knowledge of his crimes.

Congressional Democrats and even some Republicans have also criticized Bondi and the Justice Department for what they’ve argued was a shoddy redaction job in the Epstein files that have been published so far — pointing to examples where victims’ names were improperly revealed and the names of potential Epstein associates were blacked out.

The Justice Department’s independent inspector general said last week it would audit the agency’s processes for collecting and redacting information in the Epstein files.

Trump fired Bondi as attorney general earlier this month, making her the second of three cabinet-level officials to be removed from the administration this year. The president tapped Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department in an acting capacity.

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