Justice Department leaders meet with lawmakers behind closed doors to quell Epstein files furor

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Capitol Hill Wednesday to try to ease bipartisan frustration over the Justice Department’s handling of millions of records related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

The nation’s top federal law enforcement officials gave a closed-door briefing to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about the series of documents that have become a political headache that the Trump administration has struggled to shake for more than a year.

Justice Department leaders had hoped that the release of documents related to the disgraced financier would end a political saga that has marred the president’s second term, but the agency remains consumed with questions and criticism over Epstein’s case and his handling of the files.

The Republican-led committee issued a subpoena Tuesday for Bondi to appear for a deposition on April 14 to answer questions under oath about Epstein’s case and investigative records. Lawmakers accused the Justice Department of hiding too many records and criticized the agency for random redactions that revealed intimate details about victims.

The Justice Department called the subpoena “completely unnecessary,” noting that members of Congress were asked to view unredacted Justice Department records and that department leaders made themselves available to answer lawmakers’ questions.

The department sought to assure lawmakers and the public that no effort was made to protect President Donald Trump, who says he severed ties with Epstein years ago after a previous friendship, or any other figures close to Epstein, from potential embarrassment. Justice Department leaders have also rejected suggestions that they ignored the victims and insist that even if there is no evidence in the files to prosecute anyone else, they remain committed to investigating if new information comes to light.

“I’m not trying to defend Epstein, I’m not doing it,” Blanche said in an interview this week with Katie Miller, who is married to top Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “I stand up for the work that this department is doing today, right now, that goes after every perpetrator anyway, and if there’s a narrative that we’re ignoring Epstein’s victims, that’s false.”

The documents were released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure that forces the government to open its files on the late financier and his confidante and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. The criminal investigations into the financier have long enlivened online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and others who suspected government cover-ups and demanded a full accounting.

After missing a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress to release all records, the Justice Department said it assigned hundreds of lawyers to review the records to determine what should be redacted or blacked out. The Justice Department announced in January the release of more than 3 million pages of documents as well as more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.