U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi takes her seat before testifying before the House Judiciary Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on February 11, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
The Justice Department announced Thursday that it is “recording all searches” by members of Congress into data systems that store evidence about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in an effort to prevent information about his victims from being released to the public.
The Justice Department’s statement came a day after documents included in a binder used by Attorney General Pam Bondi during a House Judiciary Committee hearing showed that the Justice Department had recorded information about Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s search of the so-called Epstein files.
Jayapal, D-Wash., said overseeing searches of the Epstein files was “totally inappropriate” and “outrageous.”
Several other lawmakers recently visited the Justice Department to examine Epstein’s files, including documents not included in the more than 3 million predator-related files released.
“The Department of Justice has extended Congress the opportunity to review the unredacted documents in the Epstein file,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC on Thursday.
“As part of the investigation, the Department of Justice records all searches made on its systems to prevent victim information from being compromised,” the spokesperson said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Wednesday night that he had not seen or heard anything about the Justice Department’s recording of Japayal’s search for the Epstein files, “but if that happened, it would be inappropriate.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Jayapal exchanged sharp words with Mr. Bondi after a group of women were sexually abused by Mr. Epstein in the same room, suggesting whether he was denied access to the Justice Department.
