Fifteen months after saying a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients was “sitting on my desk right now,” and four months after overseeing the release of millions of associated documents, former Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify before a House committee on Friday about her handling of the so-called Epstein files.
Bondi’s closed-door interview in the ongoing congressional investigation into Epstein is likely to have a different focus than previous high-profile sit-downs in the probe. The House Oversight Committee has questioned the likes of former President Bill Clinton and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about their relationships with the deceased former sex abuser, but Bondi was not among Epstein’s globetrotting network of powerful friends.
Instead, she faced more than a year of withering criticism for her handling of the Department of Justice’s Epstein probe, and the rollout of documents after President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Bondi initially pledged to release files related to Epstein, telling a Fox News interviewer shortly after she took office in February 2025 that a “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Bondi later clarified that she meant material related to Epstein was sitting on her desk.
In July 2025, the Justice Department published a memo concluding that there was no “client list” and “that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The memo sparked bipartisan outrage in Congress and jolted the effort to pass a bill mandating the Justice Department release its files. Days later, Mr. Trump ordered Bondi to seek the release of grand jury transcripts related to Epstein cases.
She had faced months of heated criticism from members of Congress in both parties over the Justice Department’s efforts to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. It required the release of the Justice Department’s records related to federal investigations into Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days, a deadline the department did not meet.
About 3 million pages of documents were ultimately published, but that total is only about half of the files kept by the Justice Department. It said the remaining were withheld for a variety of reasons, including efforts to protect survivors’ personal information and to avoid jeopardizing active federal investigations.
The president fired Bondi in April. In announcing the move, he called her a “great American patriot” despite his behind-the-scenes frustration with her performance on the job.
She was originally scheduled to appear before the Oversight Committee under subpoena on April 14, but the Justice Department canceled her interview because she had been removed from her post as attorney general.
Bondi’s testimony comes just days after revealing to CBS News that she is undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. She said she was diagnosed after leaving the Justice Department and recently underwent surgery as part of her treatment.
Her appearance comes on the heels of a slew of prominent interviews conducted by the committee in recent months. In addition to Clinton and Lutnick, the committee deposed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire Les Wexner and Epstein’s lawyer and accountant Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn. All denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and denounced his behavior.
