Democrats demand special counsel investigation of Bondi, accusing her of perjury

Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) are calling on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of perjuring herself when asked about evidence relating to President Trump in the Epstein files.

The demand — made in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — comes after a heated exchange between Lieu and Bondi earlier this month in which he accused her of lying under oath during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

“Testifying before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on February 11, 2026, Attorney General Bondi emphatically stated, ‘There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime.’ Yet a number of the documents from the Epstein files released to date by the Department of Justice directly contradict her statement. When confronted with her lie, she did not retract her statement, she doubled down. She stated, ‘Don’t you ever accuse me of committing a crime,’” the lawmakers wrote in the letter sent to Blanche on Monday. 

“We request that you immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate Attorney General Bondi for committing perjury. America cannot have a liar and a criminal as our top law enforcement officer.”

Lieu had shown video footage of a younger Trump at a party alongside convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, asking whether underage girls were present at the party.

“This is so ridiculous,” Bondi responded. “They are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done. There is no evidence that Donald Trump has committed a crime.”

Lieu fired back with a document from the file showing unverified allegations from a limo driver about Trump.

Those allegations and others against Trump are now front and center following media reports indicating the Justice Department failed to publicly release witness interviews related to allegations against the president.

Lieu and Goldman pointed to a 21-page internal slideshow presentation released by the Department of Justice (DOJ), summarizing witness testimony, including that of a woman who said as a minor she refused Trump’s sexual advances, prompting Trump to respond violently and kick her out of the room.

First reported by journalist Roger Sollenberger, serial numbers tracking the various documents show that while the woman spoke to the FBI four times, roughly 50 pages related to the woman’s interviews were not publicly released; instead, only files detailing her accusations against Epstein were released.

The White House has denied any wrongdoing by Trump, saying that if he broke the law, he would have been charged by previous administrations.

Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday they would separately be reviewing the matter.

“Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Oversight Committee, in a Tuesday statement.

“Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes. Oversight Democrats will open a parallel investigation into this.” 

The DOJ has said the file that listed interviews “was temporarily removed for victim redactions and was back up by Thursday.” 

“Oversight Democrats should stop misleading the public while manufacturing outrage from their radical anti-Trump base. The Justice Department has repeatedly said publicly AND directly to NPR prior to deadline – NOTHING has been deleted. If files are temporarily pulled for victim redactions or to redact Personally Identifiable Information, then those documents are promptly restored online and are publicly available,” the DOJ wrote on the social platform X.

“ALL responsive documents have been produced unless a document falls within one of the following categories: duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation.”

But the pushback only prompted more questions from Oversight Democrats.

“Records of FBI interviews with a survivor who alleged Trump sexually assaulted her as a child aren’t duplicates or shouldn’t be privileged. Are you saying there’s an active, ongoing federal investigation into President Trump?” the panel’s minority wrote on X.

Lieu told The Hill in an interview that Bondi “should be prosecuted” and that if Blanche wants to protect himself, he should appoint the special counsel.

“If Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche doesn’t want to be complicit in a cover up, and go down with his ship, then I sure hope he responds and appoints a special counsel,” Lieu said.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night, but the department has previously attacked Lieu.

“First: these salaciously insane accusations are in the library- UNredacted. Second: they were found to have ZERO credibility. Ted Lieu is a disgrace, who pushes baseless accusations to further his political ambition. Do better, Ted,” the DOJ wrote on X last week when Lieu raised related allegations at a press conference.