A key House committee voted to subpoena U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about the Department of Justice's investigation into and release of files connected with the case of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Five Republicans on the Oversight Committee joined Democrats to vote, 24 to 19, in favor of the subpoena, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace. The vote provided a sharp criticism of Bondi, a top official of President Donald Trump's administration, by her own party with conservatives holding the majority in Congress, as well as the second time that Republican members of the Oversight Committee have crossed party lines to force action in connection with the Epstein files.

The five Republicans who crossed party lines included Mace and Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Michael Cloud of Texas and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, all of whom have been staunch supporters of Trump. Republican chairman Rep. James R. Comer, who objected prior to the bipartisan vote, will be required to issue the subpoena for a closed-door deposition in which Bondi will speak under oath.

The U.S. Department of Justice will reportedly release nearly 50,000 more Epstein files by the end of Friday (March 6), a department spokeswoman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday (March 3). The spokeswoman said “47,635 files were offline for further review and should be ready for re-production by the end of the week.”

The Justice Department is obligated to release all files related to the Epstein case in adherence with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by Trump in November after some prior pushback, with redactions only supposed to be made to protect victims and ongoing investigations.

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