Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
(Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Another House Democrat ripped President Donald Trump and his Justice Department for making clear that “they intend to withhold roughly 50% of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law.”
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Friday that Attorney General Pam Bondi should be facing impeachment, pointing to the top Justice Department official’s handling of the Epstein files, efforts to force Minnesota to hand over its voter data, and arrest of journalists including former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made the call in response to Bondi’s Friday morning announcement that Lemon, independent journalist Georgia Fort, and two others were arrested in connection with a protest at a Minnesota church earlier this month.
RECOMMENDED…
Bondi Announces 3 Arrests Over Protest at Church of ICE-Linked Pastor
Press Freedom Coalition Urges Congress to Probe FBI Raid of WaPo Journalist’s Home
“Between this, Epstein, and her attempted extortion of MN voter files, Bondi should be up for impeachment too,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media, alluding to the ongoing effort to oust Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Following the arrests of Lemon and others, the Justice Department announced the release of more than 3 million pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—more than a month after the passage of a deadline established by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November.
But the latest disclosure did not satisfy the lawmakers leading the push for full transparency. The Justice Department indicated Friday that it only released around half of the Epstein documents subject to review.
“Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have now made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50% of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law. This is outrageous and incredibly concerning,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. “The Oversight Committee subpoena directs Pam Bondi to release all the files to the committee, while protecting survivors. They are in violation of the law.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who floated impeachment proceedings against Bondi last month, said in a statement that he will be “reviewing closely to see if they release what I’ve been pushing for: the FBI 302 victim interview statements, a draft indictment and prosecution memorandum prepared during the 2007 Florida investigation, and hundreds of thousands of emails and files from Epstein’s computers.”
“Failing to release these files only shields the powerful individuals who were involved and hurts the public’s trust in our institutions,” said Khanna, the author of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
