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TL;DR
Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared at yesterdayâs House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing carrying a printout tied to Rep. Pramila Jayapalâs activity in DOJâs controlled, members-only review system for unredacted Epstein records (which began Monday). A Reuters photo captured the sheet, labeled âJayapal Pramila Search History,â inside Bondiâs binder.
The constitutional implications are enormous if DOJ is tracking lawmakersâ oversight activity and weaponizing it. This is the same Attorney General who told Fox News the Epstein âclient listâ was âsitting on my desk right now.â DOJ later said no incriminating âclient listâ exists but this week, Bondi showed up holding what lawmakers say looks like surveillance.
The Setup
In November 2025, the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law, requiring DOJ to publish unclassified Epstein-related records in a searchable format, while allowing limited redactions (including victim/survivor-identifying information and a few other narrow categories).
On January 30, 2026, DOJ announced it had posted more than 3 million additional pages, bringing the public release to nearly 3.5 million pages, plus thousands of other media items.
Then, starting Monday, February 9, DOJ set up an in-person review system for members of Congress to search unredacted records at a DOJ office in Washington with tight controls on access and note-taking.
The Burn Book đ„
Yesterdayâs House Judiciary Committee hearing was billed as a standard DOJ oversight session. Although, It was anything but that.
When Rep. Pramila Jayapal pressed Bondi on specific redaction failures, including an unredacted Epstein victim list that the DOJ has since removed from its public database, and an email exchange between Epstein and a high-profile Emirati sultan, Bondi was ready. She flipped through her binder. Notes were passed forward. She referenced them before responding.
But a Reuters photographer captured what was inside that binder: a printed sheet labeled âJayapal Pramila Search Historyâ listing at least eight Epstein-related files by file number and brief content descriptions, a detailed record of exactly which Epstein files Jayapal had searched at the DOJ facility.
The term âburn bookâ didnât come from the press, it came from Congress. And it came because this isnât the first time. Raskin opened the hearing by reminding Bondi of her Senate Judiciary Committee appearance last year, when she came armed with a similar binder of opposition research on Democratic senators. âPlease set the burn book aside and answer our questions,â Raskin said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz even leaned into it. He asked Bondi to flip to his section. âI want to see what staff provided on the oppo on me,â he said, pulling out a piece of poster board and a marker. âGive me your best one.â Bondi accused him of âmocking the Bible.â Moskowitz held up the board. Heâd written a large zero.
Were you watching the hearing yesterday? What was the moment that got you?
Hereâs where we need to put on our civics hats, because this is foundational.
The entire reason Congress has oversight authority over the executive branch is because of checks and balances. When Congress investigates the Department of Justice, which is what reviewing the Epstein files is, the DOJ doesnât get to investigate Congress back.
What the DOJ appears to have done is turn a legally mandated transparency mechanism into a surveillance operation. The executive branch created the only pathway for congressional review, controlled every variable of that pathway, and then used the data it collected to arm the Attorney General for the oversight hearing.
The executive branch monitored the legislative branchâs investigation of the executive branch, and used that intelligence in real time to prepare counter-arguments.
Raskin called it âOrwellian.â And heâs right but itâs also more specific. Itâs a deliberate inversion of the oversight relationship. Congress is supposed to be watching the DOJ. Instead, the DOJ was watching Congress.
Rep. Hank Johnson put it plainly âThe surveillance state has extended to the upper echelons, the top of the Justice Department. A United States representative could not go in over there and look for whatever documents they had without being spied upon.â
Raskin told reporters he has âreason to believe that it was happening to everyone,â not just Jayapal.
The Timeline
February 21, 2025: Bondi goes on Fox News and says the Epstein client list is âsitting on my desk right now to review.â
February 27, 2025: The White House invites right-wing influencers to receive binders marked âThe Epstein Files: Phase 1â and âDeclassified.â The contents are mostly public information. Several influencers publicly express frustration.
May 2025: Bondi claims there are âtens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn.â Court filings and DOJ documents do not corroborate this claim.
July 7, 2025: The DOJ releases a memo stating that no client list exists and no further disclosure is âappropriate or warranted.â Even Elon Musk posts mocking clown memes. Laura Loomer calls for Bondiâs resignation.
Late 2025: Congress passes the Epstein Files Transparency Act, forcing the DOJ to hand over what it refused to release voluntarily.
February 9, 2026: Members of Congress begin visiting the DOJ annex to review unredacted files under closely controlled conditions.
February 11, 2026: Bondi walks into the oversight hearing with a printed log of what those members searched.
The woman who promised a client list that didnât exist, who hyped documents that contained nothing new, who claimed video evidence that court records donât support⊠that same woman is now monitoring which members of Congress are doing the work of finding out what the DOJ has been hiding.
âTheatricsâ
Jayapal asked Bondi to turn around and to face the Epstein survivors sitting in the hearing room, women wearing all white, and apologize for the DOJâs failure to redact their personal information from the public file release.
Multiple women stood. They raised their hands to show they had not yet been able to meet with the DOJ.
Bondiâs response: âIâm not going to get in the gutter for theatrics.â
She called accountability theatrics. While holding a surveillance log. In front of the survivors who were trafficked.
When pressed further, Bondi asked Democrats if they had âapologized to President Trump, all of you who participated in those impeachment hearings.â She called Trump âthe greatest president in American history.â She called Raskin a âwashed-up lawyer.â She told Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon that she âdidnât get anything regarding public safety.â
And this is the nationâs top law enforcement official.
Raskin has formally requested a DOJ Inspector General investigation into the surveillance of lawmakersâ Epstein file searches. The DOJ must immediately stop tracking member searches, open Epstein file review to senior congressional staff, and publicly release all remaining files with only survivor information properly redacted.
Jayapal is organizing a formal congressional letter demanding an investigation into what she calls improper surveillance of Congress.
And Rep. Jayapal raised a question that deserves serious investigation: âIs this the whole reason they opened âthe filesâ up to us two days early? So they could essentially surveil members to see what we were gonna ask her about?â
The DOJ set up the only mechanism for Congress to exercise oversight over the Epstein files then it used that to spy on Congress. Then the Attorney General brought that intelligence to the very hearing where she was supposed to be held accountable.
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Sources
Hearing Coverage:
CNBC: Epstein files: AG Pam Bondi appeared to have Rep. Jayapalâs DOJ database search history at hearing
NBC News: Pam Bondi hearing devolves into shouting matches with Democrats over Epstein and DOJ prosecutions
PBS NewsHour: Pam Bondi appears at House Judiciary Committee hearing on Justice Department oversight
CBS News Live Updates: Bondi faces heated questions on handling of Epstein files at House hearing
Congressional Responses:
House Judiciary Democrats: Ranking Member Raskinâs Statement on Trump DOJ Spying on Democratsâ Search History
Courthouse News: Democrats demand DOJ probe after Bondi consulted their Epstein files search history
Epstein Files Background & Bondi Timeline:
PBS NewsHour: Epstein client list doesnât exist, DOJ says, walking back theory Bondi promoted
Fortune: How Epsteinâs âclient listâ went from âsitting on my deskâ to nonexistent
Fox News: Bondi says Epstein client list âsitting on my desk right nowâ
Fox News: Bondi under scrutiny after DOJ memo contradicts Epstein client list claims
PBS NewsHour: 4 takeaways from the Epstein files about the FBI investigation
Congress.gov: H.R.4405 | Epstein Files Transparency Act
COMING UP:
February 17: National Day of Lobbying.
Show up in your representativesâ district offices and demand impeachment, conviction, and removal. In-district pressure matters more than phone calls to D.C. offices. Visit here for more: citizensimpeachment.com/feb17
March 28: The next NO KINGS mass mobilization.
If you missed the announcement, read it here: ANNOUNCEMENT: The Next NO KINGS Mobilization. If youâre a beginner organizing locally, use this guide: How to Organize a Protest.
A petulant 5 yo pretending to AG. Full stop.
The moment that upset me the most was when Bondi refused to look at the victims and refused to apologize. The current Dept of Justice is not protecting American citizens, it is set up to only protect the felon in the Oval Office.