The political campaign to pressure the Trump administration to release the full findings of the federal investigation of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein continues as Democrats uniformly call for President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to be transparent with the American public due to widespread interest, particularly Trump’s MAGA base of supporters.
Amid the Trump administration’s inconsistent statements and insistence that there is nothing of value to release publicly, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is calling for Bondi to appear before the U.S. House Committee on Judiciary to testify about what she knows about the federal investigations.
“We should be calling in Pam Bondi. We should put her under oath to testify…about Epstein,” Crockett told CNN’s Laura Coates.
The Texas congresswoman is a Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, which has legislative oversight powers over federal courts and administrative agencies. Republicans currently have majority control in the House, which means they set the agenda for committee business. Thus far, there doesn’t appear to be enough appetite among Republicans to call for such a hearing.
Bondi has been catching heat from the political right and left after releasing a DOJ memo that concluded that there was no client list connected to Epstein’s documented sex trafficking ring. The memo comes after Bondi told Fox News in February that the client list was sitting on her desk. During a White House Cabinet meeting on July 8, Bondi clarified that she was referring to the Epstein files broadly, not a specific client list.
“She said, ‘Oh, you know, I’ve got the files on my desk.’ Then the next thing you know, she said, ‘Well wait a minute, there are no files.’ Which one is it? When were you lying?” said Crockett. “We know that your boss indicated that he was going to release the files. What is the holdup on releasing the files, and how are you going to go about determining what is relevant?”
Despite attempts to put the issue to bed, MAGA faithful and Democrats have joined in a chorus of pleas for more transparency—albeit for different reasons. Trump supporters, who have long believed Epstein’s sex crimes implicated high-profile politicians and members of the so-called government “Deep State,” have been told by Trump, Bondi, and others that the files would be released.
Theories about the Trump administration have also emerged as a result of former White House advisor Elon Musk’s assertion that Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files and that that is a reason why the full files won’t be released.
Democrats have seized on the Epstein files as a political issue. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced legislation that would’ve forced the full release of the Epstein files; however, Republicans quickly blocked it.
Khanna told theGrio he believes the Epstein controversy is Trump’s “Achilles heel.”
“He ran speaking out against the corruption in Washington. He said he was going to expose the elite who had a thumb on the scale and were breaking the rules for themselves. With his unwillingness to release the Epstein files, he’s become part of the very status quo that he campaigned against,” said Khanna.
Speaking to the public’s frustration, the progressive Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate told theGrio, “It’s about people being fed up of a system that they think is rigged against them.”
He added, “Whether he’s involved, or whether he has friends are involved, or whether he has family members involved, no one knows. But the point is, that’s why we need to have a clear release of these files.”
