rki.news
Sources: Anadolu Agency

WASHINGTON, March 19 – Democratic lawmakers walked out of a closed-door briefing Wednesday with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, citing concerns over the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking files.

Rep. Robert Garcia said he repeatedly asked Bondi whether she would commit to testifying publicly under oath and on the record, as required by a subpoena, but she refused each time. “This has been completely set up in a way that’s been irresponsible,” Garcia said, describing the meeting as “some kind of fake hearing.”

Rep. Yassamin Ansari criticized the format of the briefing—closed-door, unrecorded, and without an oath—saying it bore no resemblance to a legitimate congressional hearing. Each lawmaker was allotted only three minutes to ask questions, with no opening statements from the officials. “They just looked even more guilty of a cover-up in the way they were acting,” Ansari added.

The walkout reportedly followed a derogatory remark from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer toward a Democratic member who asked whether he would enforce the subpoena against Bondi. Democrats left in protest, while Comer criticized them for not asking “a single pertinent” question.

Epstein, who faced sex trafficking charges, died in a New York City jail cell in 2019. Critics have long condemned his 2008 Florida conviction as a “sweetheart deal.”