Attorney General Pam Bondi has been subpoenaed to answer questions from Congress about the Justice Department's sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and the agency's handling of millions of files related to the disgraced financier. Bondi was ordered Tuesday to appear for a deposition on April 14 by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform after a vote earlier this month that was supported by five Republicans. The Justice Department's failure to fend off the subpoena from the Republican-led committee underscores widespread discontent among President Donald Trump's own base over Bondi's management of the review and release of a trove of documents from the criminal investigation into Epstein.
House lawmakers have tried to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, but the former girlfriend and confidant of Jeffrey Epstein invoked her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions that would be incriminating. An attorney for Maxwell also told lawmakers that if President Donald Trump ended her prison sentence, she would be willing to testify that neither Trump nor former President Bill Clinton were culpable for wrongdoing in their relationships with Epstein. The House Oversight Committee had wanted Maxwell to answer questions during a video call to the federal prison camp in Texas where she's serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking
By PHILIP MARCELO and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press
Prominent political and business leaders are named in the documents released by the Justice Department in connection with its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. Elon Musk, Britain's former Prince Andrew, New York Giants co-owner Steven Tisch, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Google co-founder Sergey Brin are just some of the powerful men who corresponded with Epstein over the years. Many have denied having close ties to the late disgraced financier, or at least having anything to do with his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women.
A House committee has advanced resolutions to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee approved the contempt of Congress charges in bipartisan votes. It sets up a potential vote in the House. Democrats were split on the measures. A number of progressive lawmakers called for full transparency in the Epstein investigation even if it meant threatening a former Democratic president if he refuses to testify.
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are refusing to testify to Congress about Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons in a letter Tuesday said they will not comply with a House subpoena to testify. The Democrats slam a Republican-controlled committee's efforts as "legally invalid." Republican lawmakers in response say they will launch contempt of Congress proceedings against the Clintons next week. In a letter released on social media, the Clintons denounce the contempt push as being "literally designed to result in" their imprisonment. The Republican push to hold the Clintons in contempt could result in prosecution from the Justice Department.
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press
The U.S. Justice Department has released tens of thousands more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a tranche that included multiple mentions of President Donald Trump but added little new revelatory information to the long-anticipated public file on the disgraced late financier. The documents also contain apparent correspondence between an Epstein co-conspirator and the U.K.'s former Prince Andrew. Many of the mentions of Trump come from news clippings. There is also an email from a prosecutor pointing out flights Trump took on Epstein's private jet. The Justice Department said one of the letters in the file was fake, but had been included for reasons of transparency.
