Jeffrey Epstein

MS NOW -  Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Friday about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files release. Bondi’s closed-door, transcribed interview before the committee has long been anticipated. She was initially scheduled to testify on April 14, but after President Donald Trump fired her as attorney general on April 2, the Justice Department said she would not go before the panel because she was subpoenaed in her official capacity as attorney general and was therefore no longer obligated to testify.

Democrats on the Oversight Committee pushed for Bondi’s testimony. In late April, they introduced a civil contempt resolution against her, citing what they described as Republican’s caginess about rescheduling her deposition. Less than an hour after the resolution was introduced, Republicans on the committee announced they had secured a new date for Bondi’s appearance and dismissed the contempt charges as “all theater and completely unnecessary.”  In a statement Thursday, Democrats on the committee criticized the decision not to videotape Bondi’s voluntary transcribed interview and accused committee chair Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, of “working to hide her testimony from the American people.”