Lawmakers weigh impeachment articles for Bondi over Epstein file omissions
WASHINGTON— Lawmakers unhappy with the Justice Department’s decisions to largely omit or preserve documents from legally mandated files on Jeffrey Epstein threatened on Saturday to launch impeachment proceedings against those responsible, including U.S. attorney Pam Bondi.
While Democrats and Republicans alike have criticized the omissions, Democrats also accused the Justice Department of deliberately canceling the release of at least one photo of President Trump; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DY) suggested this could be a harbinger of “someone.” The biggest cover-ups in American history.”
Trump administration officials have said the release was fully legal and that the regulations were designed solely to protect victims of Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who was accused of abusing hundreds of women and girls before his death in 2019.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), author Epstein Files Transparency ActIn a social media video calling for the release of the trove of investigations, he accused Bondi of denying the existence of many recordings for months, but citing “an incomplete release with much redaction” in response to and in violation of the new law.
Khanna said he and the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), are “exploring all options” to respond and force further disclosure, including pursuing the “removal of individuals in justice,” asking courts to hold officials who block evictions in contempt, and “prosecuting those who obstruct justice.”
“We will work with the survivors to demand the release of these files in their entirety,” Khanna said.
He later added in a CNN interview that he and Massie had drafted articles of impeachment against Bondi, but had not decided whether to bring them forward.
Massie, in his own social media post, He said Khanna was right He rejected Friday’s release as inadequate, saying it “substantially fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.”
Lawmakers’ view that the Justice Department’s dump of documents did not comply with the law echoed similar complaints across the political spectrum on Saturday, as the full scope of the redactions and other cuts came into focus.
Frustration had increased sharply late Friday. Fox News Digital reported The claim was that the names and credentials of not only the victims but also “politically exposed persons and government officials” were redacted from the records, which would violate the law, and Justice Department officials denied this.
Among the critics was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who referenced Fox’s reporting in an exasperated post to X late Friday.
“The real goal is NOT to protect ‘politically exposed individuals and government officials.’ That’s exactly what MAGA has always wanted, draining the swamp. That’s what draining the swamp actually means. It means NOT to expose, name and protect all the rich, powerful elites who are corrupt and committing crimes,” Greene wrote.
Senior Justice Department officials later called Fox News to dispute the report. But the removal of a file containing a drawer full of photos of Trump inside a desk at Epstein’s home, published in a press release Friday evening, reinforced bipartisan concerns that references to the president were being illegally stored.
Trump’s name appeared in documents from the Epstein family estate released by the House Oversight Committee this fall more than 1000 times – more than any other public figure.
Schumer wrote of X: “If they’re eliminating it, imagine how much more they’re trying to hide.” “This may be one of the biggest cover-ups in American history.”
Some victims also said the evacuation was inadequate. “This is really another slap in the face,” Alicia Arden, who went to the police to report that Epstein was abusing her in 1997, told CNN. “I wanted all the files to come out as they said.”
Trump, who signed the law after working to prevent it from being voted on, has been conspicuously silent on the issue. He didn’t mention it in his lengthy speech Friday night in North Carolina.
But White House officials and Justice Department leaders have strongly pushed back against suggestions that the release was somehow incomplete, against the law or that the politicians’ names were changed.
“The only corrections applied to the documents are those required by law, period,” the Acting Solicitor said. Gen. Todd Blanche. “In accordance with the law and applicable laws, we do not remove the names of individuals or politicians unless they are victims.”
Other Republicans defended the administration. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the administration “has provided unprecedented transparency in the Epstein case and will continue to release documents.”
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in Florida in 2008, but spent only 13 months in custody in what many condemned as a love pact for a well-connected and wealthy defendant.
Epstein’s crimes have attracted widespread attention, including from Trump’s own political base, in part because of unanswered questions about which of Trump’s many powerful friends may have been involved in crimes against children. Some of those questions revolved around Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before what the president called the breakup.
Evidence has emerged in recent months suggesting that Trump may have had knowledge of the crimes Epstein committed during their friendship.
Trump “was aware of the girls,” Epstein wrote in a 2019 email released by the House Oversight Committee. In a 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of conspiring with Epstein to help him sexually abuse girls, Epstein wrote: “A dog that doesn’t bark is trump card. [Victim] “I spent hours with him in my house… he was never mentioned.”
Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The records released Friday contained few significant new revelations, but they did include a 1996 complaint against Epstein filed with the FBI — about which the FBI did little, confirming long-standing fears among Epstein’s victims that his crimes could have been stopped years ago.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of the president’s most consistent critics, wrote in
“The Trump Justice Department had months to keep its promise to release the entire Epstein Files,” Schiff wrote. “Epstein survivors and the American people need answers now.”
