The dispute has deepened congressional frustration with the handling and redaction of the documents
Lawmakers from both parties on Capitol Hill have demanded answers from the US Department of Justice over its monitoring of congressional investigators’ search activity while they reviewed sensitive, unredacted documents connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The controversy erupted after Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday with printed material listing specific files and queries that Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal had accessed.
The top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Representative Jamie Raskin, characterized the practice as a serious breach of trust and a potential violation of the constitutional separation of powers. He called for an investigation, saying the department was not only withholding records but also “spying on members of Congress conducting oversight in yet another blatant attempt to intrude into Congress’s oversight processes.”
It is totally inappropriate and against the separations of powers for the DOJ to surveil us as we search the Epstein files. Bondi showed up today with a burn book that held a printed search history of exactly what emails I searched. That is outrageous and I intend to pursue this… https://t.co/nyZjmHoGUq
“Bondi has enough time to spy on Members of Congress, but can’t find it in herself to apologize to the survivors of Epstein’s horrific abuse,” Jayapal posted on social media, calling the tracking “totally unacceptable” and promising that lawmakers would demand a full accounting of how the search history is being used.
To review unredacted portions of the files – made available in a secure Justice Department setting under the Epstein Files Transparency Act – lawmakers were required to use department-owned computers.
Some Republicans, including Representative Nancy Mace, said they believed the department was tagging and timestamping their activity. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer told Axios he was “going to ask and see if they did that.” Speaker Mike Johnson called any effort to monitor lawmakers “inappropriate.”
The Justice Department responded to questions about the allegations by saying it logs searches made on its systems to protect sensitive information, particularly the identities of victims, but did not directly address lawmakers’ concerns.
The dispute comes amid broader congressional frustration with the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files, which include millions of pages of documents, videos, and images related to long-running investigations into Epstein’s crimes and connections. Critics, including lawmakers from both parties, say the department has been slow to release information and overly aggressive in redacting material that could reveal the names of individuals linked to Epstein.