Pam Bondi Deposition Scheduled Amid Democratic Claims Republicans Caved to Pressure

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will appear before the House Oversight Committee in May for a closed-door deposition regarding her role in handling the Epstein files. 

For weeks, Democrats on the committee have been demanding Bondi’s testimony in the ongoing investigation. On Wednesday, April 29, Democrats on the Oversight panel announced on X that they had filed a resolution holding Bondi in contempt of Congress after she failed to appear under subpoena earlier in April. 

The ex-Attorney General has “illegally defied our committee, skipped her deposition, and has refused to cooperate,” the post said. 

Moments later, Republicans on the Oversight Committee announced that they had scheduled Pam Bondi’s deposition for later in May and even accused Democrats of indulging in “theater” and “completely unnecessary behavior.”

“We have secured Bondi’s appearance for May 29,” a post on an X account for the GOP members on the Oversight panel said. 

Following the announcement, House Oversight Democrats posted on the social media platform, noting that their resolution finally led Republicans to schedule a date for Bondi’s appearance before the panel. 

“Well look at this … 45 minutes after we file contempt charges against Pam Bondi for defying her subpoena to testify, @GOPoversight finally announces a date for her appearance,” the X post read. 

“Clearly we’re being effective,” the committee’s Democratic Ranking Member Robert Garcia said.

In March, five Republicans joined House Oversight Committee Democrats in a vote to subpoena Bondi. Those Republicans were Reps. Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, Michael Cloud, Scott Perry, and Tim Burchett. They sought her testimony on how the Department of Justice handled the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

Bondi, however, who was scheduled to sit before the panel on April 14, skipped the deposition after President Donald Trump fired her from her post earlier this month. 

According to CBS News, “a senior Justice Department official wrote in a letter to the committee that it was calling off her appearance because the committee’s subpoena was issued to Bondi in her official capacity as attorney general, not in her personal capacity.”

In response, Democrats on the panel argued that Bondi’s testimony in the ongoing investigation remained crucial, given that she was the department’s head when the Epstein files were released in 2025. 

Rep. Ro Khanna of California appeared on NBC News’s ‘Meet the Press’ earlier this month. He compared Bondi’s potential testimony to that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

“I mean, if we could chase Hillary Clinton, who hasn’t been in office for 20 years, certainly we can get Pam Bondi to explain why she covered up documents, why we haven’t had prosecution,” Khanna said on the show. 

Both Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton appeared for a closed-door deposition before the panel, after several pictures released in the Epstein files featured the former President. 

Hillary Clinton said that she never met the disgraced financier and convicted offender, Jeffrey Epstein. On the other hand, Bill Clinton denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and maintained that he did not know about his crimes. 

In November, Congress approved the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the Justice Department to release its records of the federal investigations into Epstein and his co-conspirator and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. 

Following this, Bondi and her department came under fire for their handling of the Epstein files. Now, the former attorney general will be among other high-profile figures, like the Clintons, to appear before the panel for her testimony.