US Politics
Pam Bondi and Kash Patel to testify to Congress on handling of Epstein case and the fallout
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Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are expected to testify before Congress on the Trump administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein Files, according to a report.
Patel is scheduled to give testimony on September 17, while Bondi is scheduled for October 9, Politico reported. They were invited to testify as part of the House Judiciary Committee’s general oversight work, according to the outlet.
The Trump administration has been grappling with the fallout of the Epstein Files for more than a month. On July 6, the Justice Department issued a memo stating that it had determined the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide behind bars in 2019, while awaiting his sex trafficking trial. The memo also concluded that Epstein kept no “client list” of rich and powerful people involved in his alleged sex trafficking, and stated no further investigation was warranted.
The memo ignited widespread outrage, providing an unsatisfying conclusion to years-long conspiracy theories and unanswered questions about Epstein’s sudden death, and his relationships.
While the congressional hearings will also include questions about Trump’s “comprehensive crime bill,” they are expected to mostly focus on the handling and fallout of the high-profile case, according to Politico. The Independent has asked DOJ for comment.
Prominent voices from both sides of the aisle have called for increased transparency on the Epstein Files.
Last week, the DOJ released a tranche of documents to the House Oversight Committee after the panel subpoenaed the files. Democrats on the committee later said only 3 percent of the documents contain information that was not previously publicly available.
DOJ shared 33,000 pages, 97 percent of which are already public, said California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
The Republican-led committee issued a subpoena on August 5 demanding all communications and documents related to the criminal cases of Epstein, and Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The 63-year-old disgraced British socialite is serving 20 years in federal prison after she was convicted in 2021 for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minors with Epstein.
She was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and other top DOJ officials last month. The Justice Department last week released hundreds of pages of transcripts and hours of audio recordings from their meetings with her.
As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to quell uproar, Bondi had asked federal judges overseeing the criminal cases of Epstein and Maxwell to unseal the transcripts which experts warned would provide little new information. The judges overseeing the cases refused the attorney general’s requests.
One federal judge stated that the content of grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials” already in the hands of the DOJ.
Bondi, especially, has been the subject of a barrage of criticism surrounding the case. Earlier this year, the attorney general said she had a “truckload” of files to review from the FBI, and suggested that the “client list”was sitting on her desk.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly come to Bondi’s defense. “The attorney general has handled that very well. She’s really done a very good job, and I think that when you look at that, you’ll understand it,” he said in July.
Epstein’s alleged “client list,” the circumstances of his 2019 death, and his ties to high-profile figures have been the subject of conspiracy theories for years. No one other than Maxwell and Epstein has been formally accused of any wrongdoing.
When the Justice Department released the July 6 memo, which said there was no evidence to support the existence of a “client list,” no further disclosures were warranted, and that Epstein died by suicide, outrage ensued. MAGA commentators and members of Congress alike called for heightened transparency around the handling of the Epstein Files.
That outrage was kicked up a notch weeks later when the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi had told Trump in May that he — among hundreds of others — was named in the files, despite his repeated assurances that he wasn’t mentioned in the documents. A mention in the file does not mean there was wrongdoing. Trump has never been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the files.
The White House called the report a “fake news story.”
