Several Democrats on the House Oversight Committee stormed out of a closed-door briefing with Justice Department leaders on the Jeffrey Epstein files Wednesday night, saying they did not trust Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer their questions completely unless she was under oath.
"It's infuriating, and it's continuous, this cover-up of the Epstein files," Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., told reporters, describing the meeting as a "fake hearing" that would neither be transcribed nor made public, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The Democrats walked out about an hour after the meeting with Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche began.
The lawmakers declined to answer questions but pushed Republicans to enforce a subpoena issued on Tuesday, which would require Bondi to sit next week for a sworn deposition.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Bondi to appear for an April 14 deposition, but the DOJ has insisted that the subpoena was unnecessary.
In January, the DOJ released millions of documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act but withheld others.
It also implemented a redaction process that initially exposed dozens of victims while keeping some prominent individuals' names hidden.
Officials acknowledged errors in the rollout, including mistakenly withholding FBI notes detailing a woman's unverified allegations of sexual misconduct against President Donald Trump because they were incorrectly tagged as duplicates.
The department later released those records and said no files were withheld to protect Trump or other high-profile figures, adding that corrections were made as issues were identified and victims’ concerns were addressed.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and said the Epstein files "totally exonerated" him.
Some Republicans joined Democrats earlier this month in voting to subpoena Bondi for an April deposition, saying key questions remain that only she can answer.
Bondi and Blanche have pushed back on the need for a subpoena, saying they offered lawmakers access to unredacted files at the Justice Department and made themselves available to answer questions.
"We were there to answer questions, we came at their convenience, we gave them as much time as they wanted,” Bondi said after the meeting.
Asked about the subpoena, she insisted that she "will follow the law.”
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