The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee summons Attorney General Pam Bondi to question her about her role in the release of the Epstein files.
Mar 5, 2026, 3:35 a.mMar 5, 2026, 3:35 a.m
The committee voted with cross-party support to summon the minister, as several US media reported.
Pam Bondi doesn’t cut a good figure when dealing with the Epstein files.Image: keystone
The handling of the millions of files relating to the investigations against the now deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had previously come under criticism. Among other things, it was criticized that victims were not adequately protected and that incriminating files had been taken off the internet.
The control committee’s decision obliges Bondi to appear at the hearing behind closed doors and answer questions from MPs. Most recently, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were also interviewed by the committee.
Bondi had already defended her handling of the Epstein files in mid-February, but also acknowledged mistakes. She admitted that some of the names of the sex offender’s victims were published “accidentally.” These were blacked out following appropriate information.
Woman makes allegations against Epstein and Trump in the documents
In mid-December, her ministry began publishing investigative files on the Epstein case. However, according to media reports, the US Department of Justice has already taken tens of thousands of documents off the internet. Analyzes by the Wall Street Journal and CBS News showed that more than 47,000 files had been at least temporarily removed from the platform by the end of February.
According to the WSJ, some of the withheld documents concern FBI notes on interviews with a woman in 2019. She stated that she was abused by Epstein as a minor in the 1980s and also made allegations of sexual misconduct against the later US President Donald Trump.
The US multimillionaire Epstein had run an abuse ring for years, to which many young women and minors fell victim. (sda/dpa)