Bipartisan anger over the US Department of Justice’s slow release of Jeffrey Epstein documents grew on Monday as lawmakers threatened to launch an effort to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress, while former President Bill Clinton sought the immediate release of any documents involving him.
“The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected,” Representative Thomas Massie, a maverick conservative Republican from Kentucky, said in a post on X.
The Justice Department released thousands of documents on Friday related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019.
The saga over the Epstein files, which has dragged on for years, has caused a rift within the Republican Party, with MAGA supporters — who make up President Donald Trump’s core voters — clamouring for full disclosure of the documents.
Trump has at times called the episode a Democratic “hoax”, but has also signed into law a bill requiring full disclosure.
Read moreUS Justice Department denies Epstein cover-up, restores photo of Trump to public files
Massie and liberal Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California said they are working together, along with other unnamed lawmakers, on an effort to obtain documents surrounding investigations of Epstein.
The two lawmakers said in an interview on MS Now that, if necessary, they would seek contempt of Congress charges in the House of Representatives against Bondi next month. They said that if their demands were not met following a “30-day grace period”, they would work to have Congress seek fines of up to $5,000 per day until the documents are released.
Also on Monday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation instructing Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, to undertake “appropriate” legal steps to secure Congress’s access to all documents covered by legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump. It was not clear whether the effort would advance in the Senate when it returns on January 5 from a holiday recess.
Thune’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Clinton spokesman Angel Urena issued a statement urging Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials in the Epstein case that refer to Clinton in any way, including photographs. “Someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this,” Urena said, adding, “We need no such protection.”
Urena said there is “widespread suspicion” that the Justice Department is “using selective releases to imply wrongdoing about individuals who have already been repeatedly cleared by the very same Department of Justice”. He did not specify who else harboured that suspicion.
The Justice Department and the White House had no immediate comment.
The Justice Department on Friday and Saturday sent two batches of Epstein documents to Congress, but the releases failed to silence critics of how the process was being handled. The agency missed a deadline last Friday to comply with a “transparency” law requiring the broad release of remaining Epstein files.
On Monday, a group identifying itself as survivors of abuse by Epstein said in a statement that the public has so far received “a fraction of the files”, and that those were “riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation”. They added that some victim identities were left unredacted.
The Justice Department has said it is working to clear more documents for release to Congress.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)