The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is trying to turn up pressure on President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi to be more transparent regarding federal government files on convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, comparing them to members of the supposed “deep state.”
In an interview with MSNBC, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sought to leverage MAGA outrage at Trump and Bondi’s management of the files after Bondi in February overpromised what she was going to disclose concerning Epstein before telling Fox News the late financier’s alleged client list was “on her desk” when the FBI reported this week no such list existed.
“You don’t have to blame some shadowy deep state,” Raskin told MSNBC on Sunday. “Donald Trump and Pam Bondi are the ones who’ve got the power to release the Epstein files. So they’re the closest thing we’ve got to the deep state right now, and they should go ahead and release all of the Epstein files and put an end to this.”
Raskin, earlier this week, took advantage of the MAGA outrage, which has mostly been directed at Bondi by the likes of conservative provocateur Laura Loomer, after the FBI also found that Epstein died in 2019 by suicide and was not murdered, as some conspiracy theorists contend, by someone on his client list. Raskin called for the publication of “any evidence in the ‘Epstein files’ mentioning Trump, that the [Justice Department] and [FBI] have withheld from the public.”
“In February, DOJ and the FBI came under intense public criticism for releasing a ‘first phase’ of the Epstein files that consisted largely of information that was already public,” Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote this week in a statement. “Despite reportedly ordering hundreds of agents to work marathon sessions in order to prepare more batches of records for public release, Attorney General Bondi has not released additional records. Just this week, the FBI stated that it has determined ‘no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.’”
Democrats added, “The delay raises questions of whether the White House has moved to prevent declassification and public release of the full Epstein files because they implicate President Trump, and whether these massive redactions efforts and the withholding of the files were intended to shield the President.”
Among those outraged by Trump and Bondi’s handling of the files is FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, a former law enforcement officer who has encouraged Epstein theories in his new career as a media personality and podcaster. Bongino is reportedly considering resigning over the Epstein developments, though the White House has disputed this.
“President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the Washington Examiner. “This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.”
Another person who has been outraged is former Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk, who has claimed Trump is on Epstein’s client list.
MUSK DEMANDS RELEASE OF EPSTEIN FILES AFTER TRUMP INSISTS ‘NOBODY CARES’ ABOUT SEX TRAFFICKER
In the same interview on Sunday, Raskin implored his Democratic colleagues to make their opposition to Trump part of the 2026 midterm election campaigns.
“The central part of the campaign will be, do you want to elect Democratic majorities to stop millions of people from being thrown off their healthcare, or do you want to go through with it?” he said on MSNBC.