<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee urged the Republican majority on Tuesday to call top Trump administration officials to testify about their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, moving to capitalize on G.O.P. divisions over the Justice Department’s closing of the case.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior administration officials have dabbled in conspiracy theories around the death of Mr. Epstein, a disgraced financier who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Administration officials promised to investigate fully and publicize their findings. </p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But the Justice Department and F.B.I. <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/us/politics/trump-administration-jeffrey-epstein-client-list-suicide.html" title="">released a memo last week</a> closing the inquiry and affirming previous findings that Mr. Epstein had killed himself, and Mr. Trump urged his supporters to move on. The shift has opened a rift in the MAGA movement and within Mr. Trump’s administration, as Dan Bongino, the right-wing podcaster-turned-F.B.I. deputy director, threatened to quit over Ms. Bondi’s handling of the matter.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">In a letter to the committee’s Republican chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, on Tuesday, the Democrats asked that the panel publicly question officials over the handling of Mr. Epstein’s case and their divergent views on the matter. They requested that four officials be brought before the committee: Ms. Bondi; Mr. Bongino; Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director; and Todd Blanche, a top deputy to Ms. Bondi.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Democrats, led by Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote that the fighting over the Epstein case and Mr. Trump’s apparent shift on the matter “have not restored anyone’s trust in the government but have rather raised profound new questions about their own conduct while increasing public paranoia related to the investigation.”</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Representatives for Mr. Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But he <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/conservatives-congress-break-trump-handling-epstein-files-rcna218850" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">told NBC</a> that he trusted Mr. Trump and his team when it came to the matter.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="ImageBlock-3"><div data-testid="imageblock-wrapper"><a href="nyt://image/1f3116c2-3ebd-5577-9968-2f11859868dc"><figure aria-label="media" class="img-sz-medium css-d754w4 e1g7ppur0" role="group"><div class="css-1xdhyk6 erfvjey0" data-testid="photoviewer-children-figure"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Image</span><div class="css-nwd8t8" data-testid="lazy-image"><div data-testid="lazyimage-container" style="height:257.77777777777777px"></div></div></div><figcaption class="css-gbc9ki ewdxa0s0" data-testid="photoviewer-children-caption"><span class="css-jevhma e13ogyst0">Attorney General Pam Bondi, and President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House last week.</span><span class="css-14fe1uy e1z0qqy90"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0">Credit...</span><span><span aria-hidden="false">Doug Mills/The New York Times</span></span></span></figcaption></figure></a></div></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-2"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Earlier this year, Mr. Jordan and the committee drew criticism over a <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.fox9.com/news/house-judiciary-gop-rickroll-epstein-files" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">since-deleted post</a> on the Judiciary Committee Republicans’ official X account that claimed to link to the Epstein files but instead, in a throwback to an old internet prank, linked to the music video for the British singer Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-5"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-3"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Even after Mr. Trump’s plea for his followers to accept the Justice Department’s decision, several Republicans who generally adhere to his views have urged federal officials to release more information. </p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Raskin, in an interview Monday night, said that Mr. Trump and several congressional Republicans had created a furor by indulging conspiracy theories around Mr. Epstein.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“I’ve called for a release of all the information in the Biden administration, and I’m calling for that now,” Mr. Raskin said. “I don’t know whether there’s anything to what the mega-conspiracy theories allege.”</p><p class="css-798hid etfikam0">Megan Mineiro<!-- --> contributed reporting.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"></p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div>