Democrats accuse Justice Department of spying on lawmakers reviewing Epstein files

Republicans and Democrats escalated a fight over how the Justice Department handles lawmakers’ access to Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, with Democrats accusing the department of “spying” on congressional oversight and the department saying it logs searches to protect victims’ information.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said Thursday that he did not think it was appropriate for DOJ to be tracking lawmakers’ search histories while they review the materials. He said members should be able to examine the files “at their own speed and with their own discretion,” and added, “I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to be tracking that.” Johnson told reporters, “I will echo that to anybody involved with the DOJ — and I’m sure it was an oversight.”

The backlash followed the emergence of photographs from Attorney General Pam Bondi’s House Judiciary Committee appearance Wednesday. The photos showed Bondi with a printout that appeared to list a “Jayapal Pramila Search History” and a series of documents that were apparently reviewed on DOJ systems by a Democratic member of Congress.

The photographs were circulated as Democrats pressed Bondi on what DOJ was doing with Epstein materials. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked DOJ’s inspector general to investigate what he characterized as “spying,” while Johnson offered his own criticism when asked about the issue.

“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,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in a post on X. Jayapal also said it was “totally unacceptable” and that lawmakers would be “demanding a full accounting” of how the department is using the search history.

DOJ defended its approach in a statement, saying that as part of the process of permitting lawmakers to review Epstein files, it “logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information.” The statement did not explain why Bondi came to the hearing with information that appeared to reflect individual lawmakers’ searches.

In the lead-up to the dispute, a bipartisan group of lawmakers traveled in recent days to a Justice Department outpost to review less-redacted records from the Epstein files. Some members who saw the materials said too much information about Epstein associates remained withheld from view, even as DOJ said it would release additional material to Congress.

The Trump administration DOJ said last month that it was releasing more than 3 million pages, along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images related to Epstein investigations. Raskin said in a statement that DOJ had not only withheld records from lawmakers but that Bondi and her team were now “spying on members of Congress conducting oversight in yet another blatant attempt to intrude into Congress’s oversight processes.”

Raskin said, “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.”