Dems tell DOJ to "immediately cease" Epstein files "spying"
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Rep. Jamie Raskin speaks at a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 12. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
A trio of top House Democrats wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding that the Department of Justice "immediately cease" cataloguing members' searches of the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files.
Why it matters: The lawmakers are trying to use the blowup over what they describe as the DOJ's "spying on Members of Congress" to address other complaints they've had about access to the department's Epstein archives.
- "Stop now and give us meaningful access to the fully unredacted Epstein files," House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote in a letter to Bondi.
- A DOJ spokesperson responded with a statement that was first issued on Thursday saying the department "logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information."
Catch up quick: Bondi was photographed during her testimony to the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday with a page in her notes labeled as Jayapal's "search history."
- The list appeared to reference specific Epstein documents Jayapal had reviewed while at the DOJ's headquarters in Washington, D.C., this week.
- Democrats have accused Bondi of having a "burn book" with opposition research targeting specific members of the committee on hand for the hearing to help rebut hostile questioning.
Driving the news: The three House Democrats demanded in their letter that the DOJ "immediately cease tracking Members' review of the Epstein files" and that Bondi meet with them to "develop a new protocol" for reviewing the files.
- They also demanded that the department release the roughly 3 million Epstein documents it has withheld from public view.
- The lawmakers want the protocol meeting to happen by Feb. 20.
- They are demanding that lawmakers be able to access the files at the U.S. Capitol complex, that select Judiciary Committee staffers be allowed to view them, and that none of them will be "monitored and tracked by DOJ."
Zoom in: Raskin, Garcia and Jayapal also want a full accounting of what they described as a "clandestine congressional surveillance operation" by the DOJ's Office of Legislative Affairs.
- That includes a list of all members of Congress whose searches were tracked, an explanation of why DOJ was collecting the information, and details on how the data was gathered and stored.
- They also want to know "what information, in addition to the searches, are you collecting on Members of Congress?"
The bottom line: If Bondi's extremely hostile posture before the Judiciary Committee this week is any indication, Democrats aren't going to get any of this.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed concern about the tracking, but he and other top congressional Republicans also defended the DOJ and argued it was likely not intentional.
Go deeper: Congress erupts over Trump admin "spying" on Epstein file searches
