Washington — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next week to answer questions about the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the panel said Wednesday.

“The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on April 14 for a deposition since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General,” a spokeswoman for the Oversight Committee said. “The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition.”

The subpoena, issued by Oversight Committee chairman James Comer last month, required Bondi to appear for a closed-door deposition on Tuesday. The full Oversight panel had approved a motion on March 4 to subpoena Bondi, who was then serving as attorney general. Five Republicans voted with all Democrats in support of the move.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Committee, said the subpoena issued by the committee is binding and demanded she appear.

“Now that Pam Bondi has been fired, she’s trying to get out of her legal obligation to testify before the Oversight Committee about the Epstein files and the White House cover-up,” he said in a statement. “Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the Attorney General or not. She must come in to testify immediately, and if she defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges in the Congress. The survivors deserve justice.”

Two Epstein survivors, Maria and Annie Farmer, in a statement urged the House Oversight Committee to make sure that Bondi’s deposition “happens immediately.”

“Until Bondi’s deposition happens and her testimony is given under oath, we will continue asking Congress to use every lever possible to ensure justice is served,” the Farmers said, adding that further delay “weakens our confidence in the government’s willingness to hold accountable those who enabled and perpetrated Epstein’s heinous crimes.” 

As attorney general, Bondi oversaw the Justice Department’s review and release of files related to the federal investigation into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime associate who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes. The material was made public after Congress approved a measure, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The Justice Department ultimately released roughly 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein out of more than 6 million pages. Top department officials said roughly half of the material was withheld for various reasons, including because some of the records contained survivors’ personal information or risked jeopardizing an active federal investigation.

Bondi was ousted from her post as attorney general last week. 

After Mr. Trump announced Bondi’s deputy, Todd Blanche, would serve as acting attorney general, Bondi initially said she would stay on the job for a month to help him with the transition. But Blanche held a press conference on Tuesday as the acting head of the Justice Department, and the department has referred to him as such, an indication that he has officially taken over.

Earlier Wednesday, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California sent Comer a letter urging him to reaffirm Bondi’s obligation to testify before the panel. Mace offered the motion to subpoena Bondi, and Khanna introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

“The removal of Pam Bondi as Attorney General does not diminish the Committee’s legitimate oversight interests in seeking her sworn testimony or the need for accountability and information about files withheld from the public by the DOJ,” they wrote in their letter. “On the contrary, it makes her sworn testimony even more important, especially with respect to actions she took as Attorney General, matters already under investigation, and decisions made under her leadership.”

Khanna and Mace said “serious questions remain” about what they said is the Justice Department’s failure to comply with the Epstein files law and its handling of the investigation into the disgraced late financier and his associates while Bondi was serving as attorney general.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the Justice Department to release its Epstein-related material by Dec. 19. But the department instead disclosed the documents in a series of releases through the end of January. Democrats and some Republicans lambasted the Justice Department for inconsistencies in the redactions of names and information found in the millions of pages of files. In the earlier releases of documents, the identities of some powerful people were shielded from the public. The Justice Department failed to redact some of the names and personal details of survivors of Epstein’s abuse, sparking outrage.

A CBS News analysis also found that the Justice Department took down tens of thousands of files, some of which contained explicit images or survivors’ information. But the reasons for the removal of other files, such as a call log with redacted names, are unclear.