Congress may be winding down for the year, but senators are making one last push for the Trump administration to follow the law and release its trove of files and documents related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Lawmakers last month passed legislation that compels the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all materials related to Epstein, and the deadline is Friday. Senate Democrats are already prepared to act in case the DOJ doesn’t follow through.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that if the administration withholds documents, or abuses ‘narrow exemptions to hide the truth,’ there would be legal and political consequences.
‘Stop hiding, stop delaying,’ Schumer said. ‘Come clean with the American people. And if you don’t, the question will only get louder and louder and louder. Trump, ‘What the hell are you trying to hide?’’
Trump signed the bill shortly after it passed unanimously in the Senate — at Schumer’s behest — and it easily glided through the House.
Prior to the vote, Trump shifted his position to backing the release of the documents after a firestorm erupted in Congress, particularly the House, for several months after the FBI announced that it ‘is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,’ of materials related to the late financier after reviewing troves of documents in the DOJ’s possession.
The bill requires that the DOJ release all unclassified records related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death.
There are some instances where the DOJ could choose to withhold certain documents, including materials that reveal victims’ identities or medical files, child sex abuse materials, information that could jeopardize active investigations, images of graphic death or injury, or classified national security information.
But the law lacks an actual enforcement mechanism to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the desired documents. Still, Republicans are confident that the DOJ will follow through.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that he ‘voted to release the Epstein files every single time that we’ve had an opportunity to do it across administrations.’
‘I think I presume good faith on the part of the DOJ,’ he said. ‘I mean, listen, the president signed the law. I mean, he’s called on them to be released. So I think I will be shocked if they didn’t release them. We’ll find out pretty soon.’
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that he believed Congress had been clear about its demands for the files and had ‘no reason to believe that they wouldn’t submit or provide the information.’
When asked about Schumer’s legal threats, he called the top Senate Democrat a ‘liar.’
‘That’s my response to anything Chuck Schumer says,’ Schmitt said. ‘He’s one of the worst senators in the history of the country.’
Other Republicans are more apathetic about the files’ expected release but are still intrigued by what new information they could hold.
‘I don’t really care. I’m as curious as anybody else,’ Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. ‘Do I think there are going to be bombshells? We’ll see what we’re going to get. It’s not my issue. It’s not my top priority. It’s way down there on the list.’