Senators Want Epstein Files From DOJ

 

Let's see how this plays out:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is leading all seven senators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in invoking a rarely used law to request files in the Jeffrey Epstein case and have them delivered to the committee next month.

In a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the group says it is requesting the files under the law, which says an “Executive agency, on request of … the Committee on [Homeland Security and] Governmental Affairs of the Senate, or any five members thereof, shall submit any information requested of it relating to any matter within the jurisdiction of the committee.”

The group requests the documents be delivered to Congress by Aug. 15, with a briefing of committee staff no later than Aug. 29. The letter was first reported by The New York Times.

The senators also ask that the department take all necessary steps to protect the identities of victims, and is requesting “all documents, files, evidence, or other materials in the possession of DOJ or FBI" related to the case. It’s not clear what enforcement mechanism Democrats would use if the Trump administration refuses to comply.  (our emphasis)

Spoiler alert: the Trump regime will comply when Jeffrey Epstein's pit in Hell freezes over.

Nonetheless, it's a necessary step that places the onus on the MAGAt Republican party/ cult and the Trump regime to come clean or face more political damage:

If the committees get the files, they could release them. Our estimate of the probability of getting unredacted files is roughly zero. Donald Trump could get out his trusty sharpie and black out every word in every document before handing them over. Alternatively, he could go to the Supreme Court to get the law declared unconstitutional on the grounds that he doesn't like it. 

But this stunt may not result in a stalemate. The public wants to see the files. If the news story in the next few days is that the Democrats are demanding the files so they can release them and Trump is blocking this, Democrats are going to be screaming: "What is he hiding? Use your imagination." The net result of all this could be that the public comes to view the Democrats as the ones trying very hard to release the files and the Republicans being the ones blocking it. That could affect the midterms if enough Republicans get so angry with the Republicans that they stay home on Election Day.

Our thinking is that the Epstein files, if they exist in a largely unredacted form, would only see the light of day if they're leaked -- à la Daniel Ellsberg -- by a whistleblower in the DOJ/ FBI.  As with the committee getting the files, roughly zero chance, given the security involved, the legal privacy issues, and the wrath that would come down on the leaker.  So, the best way the public interest can be served is to draw the line clearly that it's the Democrats who want the files released, and the Trump-shielding MAGAt Republicans who want to block it.