Democrats demand DOJ probe after Bondi consulted their Epstein files search history in hearing

WASHINGTON (CN) — A top House Democrat on Wednesday evening demanded the Justice Department’s inspector general investigate Attorney General Pam Bondi after photos emerged that appeared to show her agency had collected the search histories of lawmakers who traveled to a department facility to review the unredacted Epstein files.

And other Democrats contended Bondi’s use of that information in a “burn book” — opposition research available to her as she attempted to rebut their questioning during a contentious hearing — amounted to surveillance on lawmakers attempting to conduct constitutional oversight of a federal agency.

During Bondi’s acrimonious testimony to the House Judiciary Committee earlier Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers pressed her on the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files. As she attempted to rebut lawmakers’ questioning, the attorney general referred to a binder full of notes which she used on several occasions to accuse Democrats of prioritizing Epstein “theatrics” while failing to address crime in their districts.

But in media photographs of the “burn book” published after the hearing, other information was visible — including a list of files from the Justice Department’s recent Epstein documents drop that appeared to be a search history belonging to Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal.

Jayapal, a Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee, was one of the House lawmakers who traveled to a Justice Department site to review unredacted versions of the roughly 3 million Epstein files released late last month in compliance with federal law.

The Washington lawmaker told MS NOW that Bondi’s use of her search history in hearing materials was “totally inappropriate,” speculating the Justice Department could “essentially surveil members” to determine what Democrats would ask the attorney general about at Wednesday’s hearing.

Now, Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has said that he will ask the Justice Department’s independent inspector general to probe what he called an “outrageous abuse of power” by the attorney general.

“It is an outrage that DOJ is tracking members’ investigative steps undertaken to ensure that DOJ is complying with the Epstein File Transparency Act and using this information for the attorney general’s embarrassing polemical purposes,” Raskin told Courthouse News in a statement.

The Maryland Democrat pointed out the Justice Department had forced lawmakers to travel to an “annex” of the agency and use “clunky and convoluted” software to review millions of files related to the Epstein investigation.

“It is the perfect setup for DOJ to spy on members’ review; monitoring, recording and logging every document we choose to pull up,” Raskin said. He called on the Justice Department to “immediately” stop tracking lawmakers’ searches within the Epstein files.

Other Judiciary Committee Democrats on Wednesday were similarly furious with the Justice Department seemingly keeping tabs on their review of the documents.

“The surveillance state has extended to the upper echelons, the top of the Justice Department,” Georgia Representative Hank Johnson told Courthouse News. “The fact is, a United States representative could not go in over there and look for whatever documents they had without being spied upon … we’ve got the Justice Department spying on congresspeople.”

North Carolina Representative Deborah Ross said the Justice Department’s conduct was “typical” for the Trump administration.

“They do not want Congress to exercise oversight, and when Congress does, they want to find a way to make it our problem,” she said.

Johnson, however, said that while the prospect of the Justice Department using lawmakers’ Epstein files queries in an oversight hearing was “deeply disturbing,” it should not discourage members from engaging with the agency to review the unredacted documents.

“We can’t let this spying stop us from doing our jobs,” he said. “People will be held accountable as we move forward … we’re not going to be frightened or intimidated, we’ll just do our jobs.”

The Justice Department did not immediately return a detailed request for comment.

Wednesday’s hearing in the House Judiciary Committee quickly devolved into a partisan scrap, as Bondi and Democrats clashed over the Justice Department’s delay in releasing the full set of Epstein documents and reports that the agency had left personal information of some of the late sex trafficker’s victims visible to the public.

The attorney general, for her part, accused Democrats of grandstanding and staging a “political show” to distract from what she said were President Donald Trump’s achievements during his first year in office.

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