Former Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Capitol Hill on Friday for a closed-door deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, where she declined to answer questions about President Donald Trump’s role in the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files. Bondi, who was removed as attorney general by Trump on April 3 and replaced by Todd Blanche, spent roughly four hours with lawmakers in the Rayburn House Office Building. In her opening statement, she defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein materials and said the publication process had been overseen by Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney before becoming deputy attorney general and later acting attorney general.
The deposition marked the latest turn in a prolonged oversight battle between congressional Democrats and the Justice Department. The House committee subpoenaed Bondi in March 2026 after months of partisan clashes over access to the Epstein investigative files — a sprawling record that includes flight logs, witness statements, and other material from the federal investigation into Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. Bondi had previously resisted testifying, and the DOJ’s February 2026 decision to review whether some Epstein files had been mistakenly withheld deepened Democratic suspicion about the department’s transparency.
Lawmakers pressed Bondi specifically on whether Trump had any involvement in the DOJ’s decisions about which Epstein files to release and when. Bondi declined to answer those questions, according to the Associated Press, maintaining the posture of defiance that has characterized her exchanges with the committee since the document fight began. The committee’s interest in Trump’s role intensified after the DOJ released previously withheld Epstein files in March 2026 that included uncorroborated claims involving the president.
Blanche’s role in the file-release process has drawn particular scrutiny from Democrats. As Trump’s former personal attorney, Blanche occupied a position that committee members have argued created a conflict between the department’s investigative independence and the president’s personal interests. Bondi’s statement that Blanche oversaw the publication process placed the acting attorney general at the center of a disclosure operation that lawmakers have sought to understand for months.
The deposition’s closed-door format meant Bondi’s full testimony was not immediately public. Committee members and staff attended the session, and Bondi was accompanied by her legal team. The Associated Press reported that Bondi remained defiant throughout the questioning.
Bondi’s appearance came nearly two months after her removal from the Justice Department and almost three months after the committee first voted to compel her testimony. The interview was one of the final steps in a congressional probe that has also included testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who invoked her Fifth Amendment rights during her own closed-door deposition in February 2026.