WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted to subpoena U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Justice Department’s failure to make public its records related to sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

The committee voted 24-19 on the resolution by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), with five Republicans and all Democrats in support.

Mace told HuffPost the subpoena would require Bondi to sit for a closed-door deposition.

“Over 65,000 documents missing, and we know there are more than 2,000 videos that are out there,” Mace said. “They’re not giving Congress all the information, all the documents, and they’re obfuscating, and I’d like to ask questions about that.”

The vote came as a surprise Wednesday and once again thrust the House Oversight Committee to the forefront of the congressional response to the Trump administration’s continuing refusal to release the Epstein files. The committee first voted in July to subpoena the Justice Department for the files, and it received thousands of documents in response. In November, Congress passed a law requiring all of the files to be made public in a searchable database.

The Justice Department had uploaded millions of documents by the end of January, but still, thousands of files are missing ― including FBI forms detailing an unsubstantiated accusation against President Donald Trump.

Shortly before the vote, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) made a half-hearted effort to persuade his colleagues to oppose Mace’s motion for a subpoena.

“Remember, the attorney general has offered to come in and give briefings,” Comer said.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) offered a quick clarification: “There’s no commitment for her to come in, as far as I understand.”

A deposition is more serious than a briefing and carries the risk of repercussions for untruthful statements.

The other Republicans to vote for the subpoena were Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Michael Cloud (Texas) and Scott Perry (Pa.).

During a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee last month, Bondi mostly insulted lawmakers instead of answering their questions. She claimed Trump is the greatest president in American history, partly because the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index had surpassed 50,000 points.

Mace said Bondi will have to comport herself differently during her deposition.

“I don’t expect to be talking about the stock market, so she better not bring those notes when she comes to the Oversight Committee,” Mace said.

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