Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the Justice Department will only release some of the Epstein files Friday, a move members of Congress slammed as a violation of the law President Trump signed last month.
“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said on Fox News, adding that “over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”
In an uncaptioned tweet, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who led the effort to release the files with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), highlighted the part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (signed Nov. 19) that mandates the release of the files “not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this act.”
“Any Justice Department official who does not comply with this law will be subject to prosecution for obstruction of justice,” Khanna said in a speech on the House floor this week. “If Pam Bondi does not comply with the law, she will be held either in inherent contempt of Congress or subject to impeachment.”
House Oversight Ranking Members Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) did similar saber rattling Friday, saying in a statement: “We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”
“The law Congress passed and President Trump signed was clear as can be — the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Said in a statement. “Failing to do so is breaking the law.”
“My goodness, what is in the Epstein files?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted. “Release all the files. It’s literally the law.”
The risk that the Trump administration would manipulate its begrudging release of the files was already high; it’s already presented public information as new material, promised to release the files under its own volition before backtracking and, in the case of Attorney General Pam Bondi, said that an Epstein “client list” doesn’t exist after claiming that it was on her desk.
Trump has also repeatedly weaponized the files in an attempt to hurt prominent Democrats. Frontloading their release, which is highly anticipated by both news reporters and the public, with documents that damage his enemies would fit into this strategy.
Blanche is signalling that the administration intends to wage a war of attrition, dumping thousands of documents at once to make it difficult to ascertain context and identify any missing pieces. It raises the prospect of news outlets and online personalities racing one another to post new details, putting an impetus on speed over thoroughness.
The files are coming from an untrustworthy source, and will inevitably spark a feeding frenzy. The Trump administration using its discretion — and breaking the law — to split the files into multiple tranches only increases the odds that the documents will be strategically deployed.
One thing: Who’s gonna make them?
The House is off until Johnson decides to call them back. We know what happened the last time he had to do the right thing - we ended up with a lengthy shutdown and a Representative that wasn’t sworn in until more than a month after she should’ve been.
Johnson will keep this on a back burner until someone tells him it’s time. It clearly isn’t time yet.
Uh huh. Like Mikey will call the House back to hear articles of impeachment. Like Bondi could get charged by her own cadre of rimlickers.
I think their time is winding down, but there is simply no treason party member who will rise from the vat of shit and do the right thing.
If every single one of them had clear, certain evidence that they were going to get blown out next fall, they still wouldn’t do it, because they know there’s a militia of crazies waiting to come after them. They’re simply going to grift, inside trade, then walk away and deny they had a part in it.
Mike Johnson is as slippery as an eel.
Or, this could hasten Johnson’s downfall as speaker. The discharge petitions may have only just begun.
My guess now is that Mikey, the pious little twit, is in the files. He has sold his soul to the very devil to keep these files from being released.