Epstein files: DOJ Congress members’ searches
U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi takes her seat before testifying before the House Judiciary Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2026.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
Ministry of Justice He said Thursday that “all calls were recorded” by members of Congress into data systems holding evidence about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to prevent information about his victims from being made public.
The Justice Department’s statement came a day after a document in a folder used by Attorney General Pam Bondi at a House Judiciary Committee hearing showed that the Justice Department had recorded information about searches conducted by Rep. Pramila Jayapal in the purported Epstein files.
Jayapal, D-Wash., called the monitoring of her searches in the Epstein files “completely inappropriate” and “outrageous.”
Several other members of Congress visited the Justice Department in recent days to review the Epstein files, including documents that were not among the more than 3 million publicly released files on the predator.
“DOJ has expanded the opportunity for Congress to review unredacted documents in the Epstein files,” a Justice Department spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday.
“As part of this investigation, DOJ is logging all searches made on its systems to protect against disclosure of victim information,” the spokesperson said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday night that he had not seen or heard anything about the Justice Department recording Japayal’s searches in the Epstein files, “but it would be inappropriate if that happened.”
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