Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called for a “full and complete investigation” in the Trump administration’s partial release of the Epstein files.
Partial transcript as follows:
JONATHAN KARL: Let me start right there with the Epstein files. The administration was required by law to release them all on Friday. Are they in compliance with that law?
JEFFRIES: Well, the survivors of the Epstein nightmare deserve full and complete transparency. They’ve been advocating with such courage and bravery. Congress has acted decisively, bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate, bills signed into law by the president. And it does appear, of course, that this initial documents release is inadequate. It falls short of what the law requires.
Now, the statute requires the so-called Department of Justice, at this moment, within 15 days, to provide a written explanation to Congress and to the American people as to why they’ve withheld certain documents. We expected that that written justification should be transmitted within the next week or so, and then Congress can take it from there as it relates to determining why this non noncompliance has occurred.
KARL: Your Democratic colleague, Ro Khanna, said that — and if the Justice Department is not in compliance, and he clearly believes that they are not, that there should be impeachment proceedings for Attorney General Pam Bondi. Do you think that’s on the — is that on the table?
JEFFRIES: Well, I think there needs to be a full and complete explanation and then a full and complete investigation as to why the document production has fallen short of what the law clearly required. And so the next step in the process is going to be that written justification to try to explain to Congress, to the survivors most importantly, and to the American people, why things have apparently fallen short of what the statute requires in terms of turning everything over from the Department of Justice investigatory files.
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