Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) joined forces to denounce the Department of Justice’s patchy publication of Epstein files during this weekend’s edition of “Face the Nation.”
Fuming at Attorney General Pam Bondi and her agency during the joint interview on Sunday, Khanna called the exhaustive edits throughout the document dump a “slap in the face of survivors” which appeared nothing short of a “corrupt” cover-up.
“The problem here is there are rich and powerful people who either engaged in this abuse, covered it up, or we’re on this island,” he told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan. “What the American people want to know is who are these people? Instead of holding them accountable, Pam Bondi is breaking the law.”
Khanna and Massie both led the push to pass last month’s bipartisan-backed Epstein Files Transparency Act, which gave the DOJ 30 days to disclose the trove of records related to its investigations into the notorious pedophile.
Though the DOJ has now made over 13,000 files public, bulks of entirely black-out pages and the subsequent removal of multiple documents from Friday’s release have left citizens and members of Congress both astonished and outraged.
“They’re flouting the spirit and the letter of the law,” Massie told Brennan. “It’s very troubling the posture that they’ve taken. And I won’t be satisfied until the survivors are satisfied.”
Massie, who has regularly bucked heads with the Trump administration over its handling of the Epstein scandal, also said holding Bondi in contempt would be the “quickest” and “most expeditious way to get justice for these victims.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the exhaustive redactions in a Saturday statement on social media, claiming the edits were essential to protect Epstein’s victims. At the same time, his agency said it would be using an “abundance of caution” as it continues to review and release more material.