Torpedoed by Donald Trump from the leadership of the Justice Department, Pam Bondi risks having to testify the same under oath to Congress on how he handled the affair of the attorney general Epstein files. All the Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, and at least one Republican, recalled that Bondi “remains legally obliged to testify under oath before our commission” which in recent days approved, also with five Republican votes, a ‘subpoena’, the subpoena.
“Pam Bondi will soon be leaving her position as attorney general, but my subpoena remains,” he wrote Nancy Macethe Republican who presented the request to summon Bondi to respond to what she called “the biggest cover-up in history”, which the Justice Department allegedly carried out with the files relating to the pedophile financier. In fact, the Republican deputy recalled that in the mandate “Bondi is indicated by name and not as the attorney general in office”.
The outcry came after the Republican presidency of the commission, already busy for days trying to avoid Bondi’s embarrassing and risky deposition, had opened up the possibility that new developments could modify the mandatory nature of the mandate. A spokesperson said the committee’s chairman, Republican James Comer, “will speak with Republican members and the Justice Department about the status of the subpoena and discuss next steps.”
The media that anticipated Bondi’s dismissal, later announced by Trump, also underlined how her summons for the difficult deposition, currently set for April 14, may have also contributed to the final decision to remove the minister, whose position had long been considered shaky within the administration.
In any case, the New York Times notes today, in recent days there has been an acceleration that Bondi did not expect, despite knowing that, especially after Kristi Noem’s defenestration last month, her days as minister were numbered. Trump’s loyalistwhich did its utmost to respond to the tycoon’s unrealistic requests judicial revenge against his opponentsbut without obtaining the results that the president demanded, she expected that she would be given the opportunity and time to organize a dignified exit, lasting at least until the summer.
Instead, the Times further reveals, Trump communicated to her his intention to replace her in the car in which the Minister of Justice accompanied the tycoon to attend, the first American president in history, the Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of the executive order he signed to abolish ius soli. “I think the time has come,” the president reportedly told her during the ride, the Wall Street Journal reports. And then within a few hours, after the news had already been leaked, the dismissal arrived via social media.