The committee is seeking all of the department’s documents and communications on Epstein and Maxwell “relating or referring to human trafficking, exploitation of minors, sexual abuse, or related activity”, as well as files from the US criminal cases against Maxwell and Epstein, documents from a 2007 agreement to not prosecute Epstein and federal investigations into the former financier.
It is not immediately clear if individuals named by Comer will appear before the committee and, if they do, whether they will testify publicly.
Over the last 200 years, only four other former presidents have received subpoenas from congressional committees, and only two provided testimony.
Notably, the committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot voted during a televised hearing to subpoena Trump, who then sued to stop it. The subpoena was dropped when the committee disbanded.
Federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking of minors and other crimes in 2019, during the first Trump administration.
He died by suicide in jail that August, and almost immediately afterwards many began questioning the circumstances of his death.
This summer, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced her department, after conducting a review, had found no evidence of the long-rumoured client list.
She also said evidence supported that Epstein died by suicide. The government would release no more files, she said.
The announcements sparked outrage among some supporters of Trump, who promised in his campaign to release Epstein records.
The fight among House Republicans over the case grew so contentious that Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home early in July to block a vote over the Epstein files’ release.
As demands grew for the Trump administration to release more Epstein records, the justice department recently met Maxwell. A source familiar with the discussions told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that Maxwell did not implicate Trump when discussing Epstein’s misdeeds.
Trump officials are discussing whether to make the transcript and audio of the interview public, the source told CBS.
The justice department is currently seeking to release grand jury transcripts from her case. On Tuesday, Maxwell’s lawyer said she opposed the release of the transcripts.
“Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,” Maxwell’s lawyers wrote in a filing.
“Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.”
The BBC has asked the White House for comment on the subpoenas.