What the Snooping on the Epstein Files Search Histories Reveals About Congressional Oversight

US Attorney General Pam Bondi

​When photographers zoomed in on Attorney General Bondi during her recent House Judiciary Committee testimony, they captured her holding a printout titled “Jayapal Pramila Search History.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) staff appear to have been tracking what Members of Congress searched for in the unredacted Epstein files, including the searches of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).
 
This is just the latest sign that the DOJ needs to embrace congressional oversight, not treat it as a nuisance to be watched closely and managed. House Speaker Mike Johnson responded: “I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to be tracking that.” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) called it “creepy.”
 
Here’s the backstory: Earlier in the week, Members of Congress had been given access to unredacted versions of the files in a designated DOJ office building. Once under the roof of the executive branch, Members of Congress were surveilled and their queries recorded. DOJ showed a contempt for the oversight function of Congress that is becoming a hallmark of that department under Democratic as well as Republican administrations.
 
Consider that Biden’s outgoing team at Justice – unhappy with the decision by Congress in 2024 to reassert its oversight authority by allowing Members to attend FISA court proceedings – crafted an absurd set of lengthy and onerous restrictions that effectively neutered this law. President Trump’s DOJ has continued these restrictions, despite Bondi mentioning the need for FISA reform in her confirmation testimony. These restrictions allow a DOJ bureaucrat to evict Members from the two FISA courts at will. They also block senators and representatives from discussing what they heard in court with each other, an absurd restriction that effectively transforms a form of congressional oversight into a gag order for Congress.
 
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) complained to Attorney General Bondi about these ridiculous restrictions to FISA court access in a protest letter sent last November. And the senators recently gave the former general counsel of the National Security Agency the same message: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has its place as a national security and intelligence tool, warned Grassley, but “constant congressional oversight and vigilance is also essential to ensure that this authority is exercised responsibly,” lest its use as a domestic spying tool continue unchecked.
 
Similarly, telling Members of Congress that they can search the unredacted Epstein files – as stipulated by law – but then secretly keeping tabs on their queries is not a guardrail, as a DOJ spokesperson tried to claim (“DOJ logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information.”) Why, then, did the department provide the Attorney General with talking points to take into her hearing that outlined the search histories of Members of Congress?
 
This is just one more sign that Congress must reassert its authority and make it clear to DOJ that it is the one that oversees, not the one that is overseen.

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