Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Thursday defended one of his Democratic colleagues and issued a rare rebuke of the Trump administration — after the Department of Justice (DOJ) tracked a lawmakers’ search history of the unredacted Epstein files.
Attorney General Pam Bondi obtained Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s search records of the files after the lawmaker reviewed the documents at the DOJ, a move Johnson told reporters Thursday was “inappropriate.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also called the DOJ’s actions “disgusting” and said he would be discussing it with the speaker later that day.
“I think members should obviously have the right to peruse those at their own speed and with their own discretion and I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to be tracking that,” Johnson said. “I will echo that to anybody involved in the DOJ.”
The DOJ’s tracking was discovered Wednesday after photographs of Bondi’s notes from a congressional hearing revealed a list of which Epstein files Jayapal searched. Johnson initially called the tracking claims “unsubstantiated,” but Jayapal — who was, according to CNN, unaware of the tracking until the outlet contacted her for comment on the DOJ’s actions — quickly called Johnson to explain what happened.
“I think everyone should be concerned about this. It’s a violation of our separation of powers,” the Washington Democrat told CNN. “We should be able to look at any document we want and not feel like it’s going to be surveilled or used against us in any way. And this was just so obviously egregious.”
A spokesperson for the DOJ told CNN in a statement that the department “has extended Congress the opportunity to review unredacted documents in the Epstein files.”
“As a part of that review, DOJ logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information,” the spokesperson added.
Jeffries called Bondi “petty” and said she embarrassed herself and the entire DOJ during the hearing. He also told reporters Thursday it was Johnson’s job to stand up for his members, no matter what side of the aisle they were on.
“There is no bottom for the Trump administration, for Pam Bondi, for the other sycophants who are part of this corrupt administration, and for Republicans at this point in time,” Jeffries said. “It’s a disgrace. It does violate the principles of separate and coequal branches of government.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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