Democrats in the House of Representatives are furious that the Department of Justice (DOJ) allegedly tracked their search history while going through the Epstein files stored locally at DOJ headquarters.
After Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before lawmakers at a Wednesday hearing, a photographer caught a printout of a set of queries she had brought with her — allegedly search entries that Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said belonged to her.
“Totally inappropriate,” Jayapal told Fox News Digital of the monitored queries. “We’re going to demand an end to that.”
The list caught in the photograph included phrases Jayapal had looked up in the DOJ’s Epstein database, phrases like “Epstein victim list — all redacted” and “new Brazilian just arrived, sexy and cute, 19 yo.”
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Bondi and the DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Although the publicly available DOJ Epstein library does contain a privacy disclaimer, it asks readers to notify the agency in the event that a victim’s identity is accidently revealed and does not make mention of data collection of any kind.
Although it’s unclear what Democrats can do about their displeasure over any monitored searches, several lawmakers blasted the DOJ for what they saw as a violation of the separation of powers.
In the view of members like Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, the photos allegedly prove that the DOJ is taking steps to control investigation efforts by members of Congress.
“The fact that they’re tracking us as we’re searching — why would you do that?” Garcia said Thursday.
“What’s the explanation for tracking members and what we’re searching for?” he asked. “It doesn’t make any sense. We’re very concerned about the process.”
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Lawmakers from across both parties have made trips to the DOJ building in recent days, going through the Epstein files that the agency has stored on local devices at DOJ headquarters.
Investigators like Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., among others, have made the trek to the facilities hoping to discover how many of the files remain undisclosed by questioning DOJ officials directly about the files.
It’s those searches that Democrats claim have been under surveillance. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, says he thinks the agency has been monitoring members of both parties.
“We have reason to believe that it was happening to everybody who went over there, that they were monitoring everybody’s computer searches,” Raskin said.
To remedy the issue, Garcia and Raskin both floated the idea that the DOJ could bring its devices to the Capitol, where lawmakers could continue their review.
“I mean, it would help the process,” Garcia said of the idea. “But at this point, they’re not even releasing all the files. Half of the files are being kept. We can no longer trust anything that the DOJ, Bondi would say.”
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Garcia noted that lawmakers believe a portion of the files were already redacted when they were transferred from the FBI to the DOJ, meaning that the DOJ, on its own, might not be at fault for every redaction.
As lawmakers debate how to prevent the collection of future queries, Raskin said he intends to send a letter to the DOJ demanding additional information about the alleged surveillance. He declined to expound on what else Democrats could do to rein in the DOJ but hinted he would have an announcement in the coming days.
“I’ll say more about it later,” Raskin said.
