Democrats on the House Oversight Committee investigating the Jeffrey Epstein scandal stormed out of a behind-closed-doors briefing with Attorney General Pam Bondi Wednesday, describing the experience as “infuriating.”
Bondi, who has also been subpoenaed by the GOP-led panel to take questions under oath on April 14, is reported to have repeatedly answered that she planned to “follow the law” regarding the deposition, which committee Democrats interpreted as a refusal to commit to appearing.
The AG was accompanied by her deputy, Todd Blanche, and the pair defended the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein files, insisting it had been as transparent as possible and that the 3.5 million documents released were “the height of the Eiffel Tower,” according to Axios.
However, the session soon became “an unmitigated circus,” an insider told CNN, when a shouting match erupted between Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Summer Lee and Republican chairman James Comer.
Lee reportedly complained that Bondi “hasn’t offered any information” about the Epstein investigation and had turned the briefing into “a hearing without the cameras.”
Comer responded by asking the congresswoman, “You want me to scoot some chairs around and make a circle, would that make it feel more like a briefing? Are you trying to find information or are you trying to embarrass the attorney general?”
He then said Lee had “wasted three minutes of everybody’s time kind of b****ing,” sparking the walkout after roughly half an hour.
Afterwards, California Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said of Bondi: “She refused on multiple occasions to commit to following the subpoena that Chairman Comer actually just put out.
“I asked her repeatedly that question. Other members asked her that question, and she would not commit to it. It is outrageous. It’s infuriating, and it’s continuous – this White House cover up of the Epstein files.”
But Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett defended the AG, telling reporters: “She said she’s going to stick to the law, whatever the law is, that’s what it is.
“So, I’m not the attorney but that was a legal answer, and that’s what she’s required to do as the attorney general. It was all staged, you could tell it, because it just built up to it.”
When Bondi herself emerged from the briefing and was asked again about the subpoena, she repeated her familiar refrain: “I made it crystal clear, I will follow the law.
“We were there to answer questions. It’s the evening. We came at their convenience. We gave them as, really, as much time as they wanted. We sat there saying, ‘Anything you want to ask us, ask us, anything you want to ask us.’”
As for Comer and Lee, the chairman said, “I personally don’t see any reason for her to do a deposition.
“She’s the sitting attorney general. She’s turning over documents. I think the Democrats want to do this to embarrass her.”
“I want to bring in the bad guys for the deposition. I want to bring in the men who have abused women. I want to bring in anyone who is involved in the prosecution and or lack of prosecution, of Epstein-Maxwell and some of these other guys. So that’s where I think our time and energy should be spent,” he continued.
Lee said Bondi had been “confrontational” and had offered little, as she had expected, explaining that that was why she introduced articles of impeachment against Bondi on Tuesday, accusing her of “obstructing justice.”
Arizona and Michigan Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Rashida Tlaib are co-sponsors of Lee’s measure, while California Rep. Lateefah Simon emerged from Wednesday’s hearing indicating that she too would support it, according to Axios.
Speaking to the same outlet after the aborted briefing, Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam said of Bondi: “She is building a record.
“She basically set up a fake hearing under the guise of a briefing, she has defied subpoenas that we’ve put out already and then she has continued to be evasive and combative with us.”
The committee investigating Epstein has recently held private hearings with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and the late billionaire’s personal lawyer Darren Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn as it seeks to plumb the depths of his crimes and deliver justice for the victims.
Blanche, meanwhile, was subjected to a surprisingly intense grilling on Epstein on The Katie Miller Podcast Tuesday, taking questions on the circumstances surrounding his suicide in a New York City jail cell in August 2019, the failure to prosecute more of his powerful associates, and even his hypothetical link to the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
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