Feb. 12 (UPI) — Both Democrats and Republicans have called out the Department of Justice for tracking their searches in the Jeffrey Epstein files database.
A day after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi clashed with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, members of the U.S. House said the department has been tracking their searches in its files related to the investigation into Epstein and his co-conspirators.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., described what searching the Epstein files is like under the watch of the Justice Department. Mace said a “tech person” logs congresspeople into a computer where all of the documents they open are tracked.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Bondi could be seen with a sheet of paper that had a header reading “Jayapal Pramila Search History.” Jayapal confirmed that the searches listed on that paper were searches she performed in the Epstein files database.
“It’s completely against the separation of powers,” she said in an interview with NPR on Thursday. “We are supposed to be able to, as lawmakers, go in, review the files, take whatever we want from there, not be surveilled and spied on by the Department of Justice.”
Jayapal said she spoke with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., about the surveillance on Wednesday.
“I do think that there is bipartisan agreement that we should be able to review those files without the Department of Justice surveilling us,” Jayapal said. “We need a whole new process for how we review these files and who tracks any of this.”
Lawmakers have been reviewing unredacted files related to the investigation of Epstein this week under the Justice Department’s purview. The Justice Department said in a letter to lawmakers that a log of the dates and times that members reviewed the files would be kept.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.