Massie, Khanna Announce Push To Impose Rare Congressional Punishment on Bondi for Withholding Epstein Files

After missing the Friday deadline to release the full and largely unredacted Epstein files, Attorney General Pam Bondi is quickly facing the threat of congressional retaliation. Congressman Thomas Massie, a Republican who authored the Epstein files disclosure bill, says he is drafting a resolution to force Ms. Bondi to give answers to Congress.Mr. Massie worked with a Democrat, Congressman Ro Khanna, to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month, despite fierce pushback from Republican leadership and President Trump himself. Facing political pressure, Mr. Trump eventually signed the bill, which gave Ms. Bondi 30 days to release all files, with some exceptions. Any redactions she made, however, would have to be accompanied by a written explanation for why that certain piece of information had been excluded. On Friday — the day that the totality of the files were due to be made public — Ms. Bondi’s deputy, Todd Blanche, released hundreds of thousands of documents, but said many more will be put out over time. Messrs. Massie and Khanna point out that such a move violates the law that they authored. “There are several ways to get at this,” Mr. Massie told “Face the Nation” on Sunday in a joint interview with Mr. Khanna. “The quickest way, and I think the most expeditious way, to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi. That doesn’t require going through the courts.”“Ro Khanna and I are talking about and drafting that right now,” he said. Several Americans — both public officials and private citizens — have faced contempt of Congress resolutions in the past. Two well-known Trump aides, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, served jail sentences for defying subpoenas from the Select January 6 Committee. Hunter Biden was held in contempt, though his father’s administration did not pursue charges. President Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, was held in contempt during a congressional investigation. What Mr. Massie is talking about now, however, is a different process that has not been used in decades, though some have tried. Inherent contempt charges allow the House or Senate to levy punishments against certain individuals until they comply with the legislature’s will. Those punishments include being detained by either the Senate or House Sergeant-at-Arms or facing fines.The last time someone was held in inherent contempt was in 1934. “We’re building a bipartisan coalition,” Mr. Khanna said of the inherent contempt resolution. He says their resolution would not include a warrant for Ms. Bondi’s detention. “It would fine Pam Bondi for every day she’s not releasing these documents,” Mr. Khanna clarified. During an appearance on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Mr. Blanche defended the Justice Department’s actions, saying that he and Ms. Bondi will always stand with Epstein’s victims. He says the redaction process has been complicated by the legal requirement that victims’ identities be protected. “The same individuals that are out there complaining about the lack of documents that were produced on Friday are the same individuals who apparently don’t want us to protect victims,” he said.Some allies who support the disclosure of the files may be wary to take such a step in punishing Ms. Bondi, however. “I think that’s premature,” Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, told “Meet the Press” of any potential impeachment or contempt efforts against Justice Department officials. Mr. Kaine pointed to a recent bipartisan maneuver in Congress, which saw Republicans and Democrats include language in the annual defense authorization bill to force Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to release video of his Caribbean boat strikes. If Mr. Hegseth does not release the video, his travel budget will be slashed. “We have tools in appropriations bills and other tools to force compliance if somebody’s dragging their feet, and I’d rather focus on those tools than get into discussions about contempt or impeachment,” Mr. Kaine said.

Massie, Khanna Announce Push To Impose Rare Congressional Punishment on Bondi for Withholding Epstein Files

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