GOP leaders split on Bondi’s use of lawmaker Epstein files search history

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Justice Department’s apparent move to send Attorney General Pam Bondi to a House hearing this week armed with the search histories of some lawmakers who viewed the unredacted Epstein files gained an unlikely critic on Thursday: House Speaker Mike Johnson.

But while the House Republican leader expressed misgivings about the government’s top law enforcement official keeping tabs on members of Congress reviewing the Epstein documents, other top GOP lawmakers were dismissive of Democrats who accused Bondi of spying on them.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee were furious following the attorney general’s testimony to the panel Wednesday, after images of her notes from the hearing showed a list of Epstein documents apparently viewed by Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal when she traveled to a Justice Department facility to view the unredacted files in person.

Jayapal herself called the surveillance “totally inappropriate,” and other top Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have called for an independent investigation into the Justice Department’s conduct and have even floated legal action.

The Justice Department has confirmed that it tracked search queries made by lawmakers who viewed the unredacted Epstein files.

“DOJ has extended Congress the opportunity to review unredacted documents in the Epstein files,” an agency spokesperson told Courthouse News in a statement. “As part of that review, DOJ logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information.”

Still, Democrats contend the Justice Department abused its power by logging those searches. And, speaking to reporters Thursday, Johnson said he was “looking into” the situation but expressed similar concerns.

“It would obviously be an important line that’s crossed, and obviously we can’t allow for that,” Johnson said. He had initially said Wednesday night that it would not be “appropriate” for the Justice Department to use lawmakers’ search histories.

But leading GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee waved away concerns about privacy. California Representative Darrell Issa, who chairs the panel’s courts subcommittee, suggested that Democrats were overreacting at Bondi’s use of their Epstein search history.

“I’m not concerned,” he told Courthouse News. “If she has that material at her disposal, I don’t see that as a problem in order to answer questions.”

And Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, compared the Justice Department’s conduct with former special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe into 2020 election interference. Republicans have for months accused Smith of illegally spying on GOP senators by acquiring their call logs from the period around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“I think it’s pretty rich for people to raise this in light of what we’ve seen from Jack Smith,” said Jordan.

So far, neither Democrats nor the House’s Republican majority have announced any formal action to conduct oversight over the Justice Department. But Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he would ask the agency’s independent inspector general to probe Bondi’s conduct.

“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 said.

Bondi clashed with House Democrats on Wednesday during a tense three-hour hearing in the Judiciary Committee. The attorney general took on a combative posture with lawmakers, frequently raising her voice and insulting committee members. Jordan, presiding over the hearing, was forced on several occasions to remind Bondi to respect the panel’s rules of decorum.

Throughout her testimony, the attorney general repeatedly consulted a binder — dubbed a “burn book” — of opposition research the Justice Department had compiled on the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic lawmakers, reading out crime statistics from their districts and accusing them of using the Epstein files to distract from the Trump administration’s accomplishments.

Bondi used a similar “burn book” against Senate Democrats during her appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October.

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