House Oversight Committee Seeks Testimony from Acting AG Nominee Todd Blanche on Epstein Files

Rep. James Comer, the Republican leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Wednesday that he is working to have Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appear before the panel next month. Comer told reporters he is communicating with the Justice Department about potential testimony and wants Blanche to appear in July.

The White House officially sent Blanche's nomination for attorney general to the Senate on Monday. President Trump announced last week that he had selected Blanche for the post. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said Blanche's appearance should be a deposition taken under oath, which is videotaped and released to the public.

"It's not enough to just get Blanche in," Garcia told reporters. Garcia added that lawmakers are now discussing the nominee to be attorney general on the Senate side. "This is not acting. He's not the deputy, and he may be the attorney general when he gets here or not," he said.

The Oversight panel has been investigating the Justice Department's handling of Epstein's case for several months. It has interviewed more than a dozen people behind closed doors, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former President Bill Clinton and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is testifying before the Oversight Committee about his ties to Epstein on Wednesday.

Lesley Groff, Epstein's longtime assistant, appeared before lawmakers on Tuesday. Comer said he will also ask former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz to come before House investigators. "We will have questions for him.

We're going to give him an opportunity to come in and answer several questions that arose yesterday based on Ms. Groff's testimony and some things that some of the Epstein survivors said," Comer said. Bondi led the Justice Department during the release of more than 3 million pages of files from the federal investigation into Epstein, which were required to be made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.