On March 18, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared for a closed-door briefing before the House Oversight Committee on the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files. Less than an hour later, Democratic members walked out, calling it a “fake hearing.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee's top Democrat, said Bondi “refused on multiple occasions to commit to following the subpoena” that compels her to testify at a closed-door deposition on April 14. The committee had voted 24-19 on March 4 to subpoena her, on a motion by Rep. Nancy Mace, with five Republicans joining Democrats: Mace, Lauren Boebert, Tim Burchett, Michael Cloud and Scott Perry. Bondi was not under oath at the briefing, and no C-SPAN cameras were allowed.
Rep. Summer Lee said that when she asked Chairman James Comer whether he would compel Bondi to comply with the subpoena and move to hold her in contempt if she did not show up, Comer, “instead of answering as an adult,” said she was “bitching.” Comer confirmed the exchange and later wrote on X, “I said Democrats were bitching and wasting everyone's time because Democrats were bitching and wasting everyone's time.”
Asked afterward whether she would comply, Bondi said, “I made it crystal clear. I will follow the law,” a response Garcia called inadequate. Comer called the walkout “premeditated” and part of a “political game,” and told reporters, “I personally don't see any reason for her to do a deposition.”
Three weeks later, Axios reported that Bondi, by then no longer attorney general, would not comply with the subpoena to appear before the committee. Garcia accused her of “trying to get out of her legal obligation to testify” and threatened to hold her in contempt of Congress.
Correction (October 14, 2026): This entry previously said Democrats walked out within 30 minutes; CBS News reports they left less than an hour after the briefing began. It also said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the walkout a “stunt”; none of the available sources attributes that word to Blanche, and the reporting shows Comer and committee Republicans calling the walkout “premeditated.” A sentence describing the Justice Department's “pattern of withholding Epstein documents related to Trump” was removed because this entry's sources do not support it. Four citations pointed to articles that do not exist and were removed, and a Bloomberg citation that could not be confirmed was dropped; sources for the subpoena vote and Bondi's later refusal were added.