Attorney General Pam Bondi’s unusually chaotic appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday was notable in large part because of what the Florida Republican said during the proceedings. But as the dust settled on the partisan circus, there was another element to the larger controversy that had nothing to do with Bondi’s antics and everything to do with her notes. CBNC reported:
Attorney General Pam Bondi at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday seemed to have a printout of Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s history of searches of the Department of Justice’s database of documents related to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Photos of a black binder that Bondi had at the hearing showed the words ‘Jayapal Pramila Search History’ and a list of documents whose numbers coincide with the number of Epstein files.
In recent days, many members of Congress have gained access to Epstein materials that are not available to the public, though the limitations are significant. Lawmakers have to physically go to the Justice Department and review the records in a private space, without staff or recording equipment. Members have to rely on DOJ computers while being supervised by DOJ officials.
At that point, they can begin searching the documents as part of the ongoing congressional investigation.
Bondi’s notes, however, captured by a Reuters photographer, pointed to an element we weren’t aware of: The DOJ is apparently surveilling what documents among the Epstein files members are looking for.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, was not pleased.
“Not only has the Department of Justice illegally withheld documents from Congress and the American people. Not only has Attorney General Bondi failed to bring a single indictment against a single co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. But now Bondi and her team are spying on Members of Congress conducting oversight in yet another blatant attempt to intrude into Congress’s oversight processes,” the Maryland Democrat said in a statement.
Raskin added, “It is an outrage that DOJ is tracking Members’ investigative steps undertaken to ensure that DOJ is complying with the Epstein File Transparency Act and using this information for the Attorney General’s embarrassing polemical purposes. DOJ must immediately cease tracking any Members’ searches, open up the Epstein review to senior congressional staff, and publicly release all files — with all the survivors’ information, and only the survivors’ information, properly redacted — as required by federal law.”
The Democrat concluded that he will ask the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office to “open an inquiry into this outrageous abuse of power.”
Soon after, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he wasn’t familiar with the details of the controversy, though the Louisiana Republican conceded that “it would be inappropriate” if the Department of Justice had looked through a member’s search history of the Epstein files.
Relatedly, MS NOW has confirmed that Jayapal spoke with the House speaker on Wednesday night about DOJ monitoring members’ searches in the Epstein files. She declined to talk about details of the call, saying “we’ll see” what comes of their discussion.
As for Main Justice, it’s not yet clear whether the IG’s office will open an inquiry, but in the meantime, there’s no reason to assume the matter will simply go away. Indeed, the list of relevant questions is not short: How many members’ search histories were secretly chronicled? What is the Justice Department doing with the information it compiled? How much of the surveillance has been shared with the White House?
The Epstein files have constituted their own scandal for quite a while, but this new controversy related to the files is just getting started. Watch this space.
