The Justice Department is coming under intense scrutiny from members of Congress in both parties for allegedly cataloguing the search history of lawmakers who have gone to review the unredacted Epstein files.
Why it matters: It's a fresh and high-octane scandal for Attorney General Pam Bondi at a time when she is already facing bipartisan heat over her handling of the Epstein matter.
- "There is no bottom for the Trump administration," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said at a press conference Thursday.
- The Democratic leader added: "It's a disgrace. It does violate the principles of separate and co-equal branches of government."
- Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he doesn't think "it's appropriate" for anyone to be tracking what members of Congress are searching — though he speculated that it may have been "an oversight."
Driving the news: Bondi was photographed at a testy House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday with notes that showed a "search history" for Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) referencing specific Epstein files.
- Jayapal was one of several Judiciary Committee members who went this week to go through the unredacted files, which have been made available to lawmakers on terminals at the DOJ's headquarters.
- Bondi appeared to have rejoinders teed up for specific members of Congress at the hearing, with Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) accusing her of having a "burn book" on Democrats.
- A DOJ spokesperson told Axios: "DOJ 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."
What they're saying: "For much of the time, there were ... DOJ employees who were looking — I had somebody sitting right behind me for a lot of the time — looking at exactly what I was searching," Jayapal told reporters.
- "They had logins that had our names, they logged us into the computers ... so clearly they intended to look at our search history even when they invited us in," Jayapal said.
- Jayapal accused Bondi at Wednesday's hearing of wanting "to know what emails we were going to ask about, and then use that information, the surveillance of members of Congress, against us."
What we're hearing: Democrats told Axios on Thursday that they are eyeing a wide array of responses.
- "I think we are within our right to pursue legal action," Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) told Axios.
- An official for one outside advocacy group confirmed they are "definitely exploring" legal recourse in coordination with members.
- House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said Democrats will conduct a "full investigation" into the matter, while Raskin said he will ask the DOJ inspector general to open an inquiry.
Zoom in: Balint also told Axios she and other lawmakers are coordinating a letter to the Justice Department demanding "a change of policy at DOJ, today."
- The letter will say "you are not going to be gathering our data separately, it all has to be no discrete logins," Balint said.
- The Vermont Democrat said she spoke to House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), who is "interested in having leadership involved."
The intrigue: It's not just Democrats up in arms about this. "They're tagging the documents that members of Congress search for and open and review, they're actually physically tagging them," Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told reporters.
- "It makes you wonder why they're doing it," she continued. "I didn't like it, and I found it disturbing and intimidating ... they should have let members know and disclosed that."
- House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told Axios he is "going to ask and see if they did that. ... I have no idea if that's what it was or not, we'll try to find out."
The other side: House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Axios he has no issue with the DOJ's actions.
- "For people to raise this in light of what we've seen from Jack Smith and the Arctic Frost investigation" is "pretty rich," Jordan said, referring to the Trump special counsel's seizure of GOP lawmakers' phone records as part of his Jan. 6 investigation.
- Comer said he is "not really" concerned about the issue, telling Axios he is "very satisfied that [the DOJ] has opened everything up and let everybody go there and see it."
The bottom line: "This is very serious," Balint said. "Very serious. And we're not going to let it go."
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from the Justice Department.
