{"leadStory":{"url":"https://cnn.com/2026/02/12/politics/doj-monitoring-lawmaker-epstein-files-searches","title":"House speaker condemns Trump Justice Department monitoring of lawmakers' Epstein document review","summary":"House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday said the Justice Department's tracking of lawmakers' search history was inappropriate, a rare rebuke from the Republican who is usually in lockstep with the administration.\nJayapal told CNN she did not know the Justice Department had surveilled her search until CNN contacted her Wednesday for comment on the matter.\nThat's my search history exactly in the order that I searched it,'" Jayapal told CNN of her conversation with Johnson.\nThe Justice Department is also required to give Congress a privileged log explaining why certain redactions were made by February 15.\nThe Justice Department ultimately declined to investigate the matter despite a referral from the Inspector General.","clusterId":"7a3dd8c3-fb40-4003-9aa9-f62432a69cf4","leadStory":true,"snippet":"House speaker condemns Trump Justice Department monitoring of lawmakers' Epstein document review — Federal agencies Epstein files Congressional news Donald Trump — Attorney General Pam Bondi obtained Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal's search history of the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files …","text":"Attorney General Pam Bondi obtained Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal's search history of the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files and even President Donald Trump's most powerful ally in Congress has a problem with it.\n\nHouse Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday said the Justice Department's tracking of lawmakers' search history was inappropriate, a rare rebuke from the Republican who is usually in lockstep with the administration.\n\n"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 told CNN. "I will echo that to anybody involved in the DOJ."\n\nJohnson's comments come after photographs of Bondi's notes during a Wednesday congressional hearing revealed the Justice Department is tracking which documents lawmakers are reviewing in the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files, prompting some on Capitol Hill to sound the alarm.\n\nCNN first reported the apparent surveillance from a photo taken of Bondi's notes during her testimony, which included Jayapal's "search history" of the documents, with a list of which files the congresswoman had searched.\n\nJayapal told CNN she did not know the Justice Department had surveilled her search until CNN contacted her Wednesday for comment on the matter.\n\n"I think everyone should be concerned about this. It's a violation of our separation of powers," Jayapal said. "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."\n\nWhen Johnson initially called the allegation of DOJ tracking lawmakers' search history "unsubstantiated" on Wednesday, Jayapal, who is close with the speaker from his days serving on the Judiciary panel, immediately called him to explain what happened.\n\n"I said, 'Mike, it's real. That's my search history exactly in the order that I searched it,'" Jayapal told CNN of her conversation with Johnson.\n\nLawmakers have been scheduling times this week to go into a Justice Department building in Washington, DC, to review unredacted versions of the files and have since pressured the Justice Department to unredact the names of individuals who were at one time considered as co-conspirators in Epstein's crimes.\n\nLawmakers have not been allowed to bring phones or members of their staff into the building to review the documents and are limited to four computers set up with the unredacted files.\n\nWhen Jayapal went into the room to view the unredacted Epstein files, a Justice Department employee logged her into one of the four computers available for lawmakers, the lawmaker said.\n\nDuring the duration of her time in the room, Jayapal said DOJ staffers remained with her, and at one point one of the employees sat directly behind her, able to view her computer screen. Even though lawmakers were allowed to bring in notes with them, Jayapal said she was instructed to only take notes on the pads of paper the Justice Department provided her.\n\nA department spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that "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."\n\nRepublican firebrand Nancy Mace has also spoken out about the monitoring of lawmakers' searches, writing on social media Wednesday that "DOJ is tracking the Epstein documents Members of Congress search for, open, and review."\n\n"I was able to navigate the system today and I won't disclose how or the nature of how; but confirmed the DOJ is TAGGING ALL DOCUMENTS Members of Congress search, open and review," she said.\n\nIn the aftermath, Jayapal said the Justice Department needs to create a "completely different process" for lawmakers to review the unredacted files without fear of their search history being saved or used against them.\n\nThe congresswoman said she wants to know why the DOJ set it up in such a way that a lawmaker's search history could be reviewed in the first place.\n\nRepublican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said the most "charitable" explanation for tracking members' search history was that DOJ wanted to "improve their service" by helping members find the most frequently sought-after documents. But Massie said that charitable view is undercut by Bondi carrying with her a list of Jaypal's search terms at the hearing "where she clearly was prepared with oppo resesarch" and brought "flash cards with insults" to try to "embrass" the members.\n\n"I think it's kind of creepy that they were hoping to divine some line of attack based on our search histories," Massie said.\n\nMassie has also criticized the DOJ for having certain redactions in files that lawmakers were supposed to be able to view in an unredacted form. That makes it impossible, he argued, for Congress to access all FBI files in the millions of pages released by the Justice Department.\n\nThe law, passed by Congress and co-authored by Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, limited which redactions DOJ could make, including personal information of victims and materials that would jeopardize an active criminal investigation. But as CNN previously reported, some redactions described by the lawmakers did not line up with the law.\n\nThe Justice Department is also required to give Congress a privileged log explaining why certain redactions were made by February 15.\n\nThe surveillance is reminiscent of the CIA's efforts to spy on Senate intelligence committee staffers who were conducting oversight into the CIA's interrogation and torture tactics that occurred in the wake of the 9/11 attack.\n\nIn March of 2014, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chaired the intelligence committee, said she believed the CIA could have acted illegally in monitoring a standalone computer network in northern Virginia used by staffers to access classified CIA material.\n\nThe Justice Department ultimately declined to investigate the matter despite a referral from the Inspector General."},"relatedStories":[{"url":"https://www.memeorandum.com/260212/p81","title":"memeorandum: Mike Johnson chides DOJ for tracking lawmakers' perusal of unredacted Epstein files (Politico)","summary":"memeorandum is an auto-generated summary of the stories that US political commentators are discussing online right now.\nUnlike sister sites Techmeme and Mediagazer, it is not a human-edited news outlet, but rather a media-monitoring tool for sophisticated news consumers.","clusterId":"7a3dd8c3-fb40-4003-9aa9-f62432a69cf4","leadStory":false,"snippet":"Politico:\n\n\nMike Johnson chides DOJ for tracking lawmakers' perusal of unredacted Epstein files\n\n\n+\nDiscussion:\nAxios, ABC News, Salon, IJR, Forbes, NewsMax.com, The Hill, NOTUS, New York Magazine and NPR\n\n\n–\nDiscussion:\nAxios: Congress erupts over alleged Trump admin "spying" on membersABC News: Speaker Johnson calls DOJ surveillance of members reviewing unredacted Epstein files not 'appropriate'Garrett Owen / Salon: "This is unprecedented": Bondi's conduct in hearing draws ire of lawmakers and legal scholarsAndrew Powell / IJR: The Bipartisan Blunder: Mike Johnson vs. the DOJ Surveillance SagaSara Dorn / Forbes: DOJ Admits Tracking Lawmakers' Epstein Files Search History—As 'Spying' Backlash GrowsTheodore Bunker / NewsMax.com: Speaker Johnson: DOJ Tracking Lawmakers in Epstein Case InappropriateEmily Brooks / The Hill: Speaker Johnson: Not 'appropriate' for DOJ to track members' Epstein files searchesJade Lozada / NOTUS: Jayapal Says She's Seeking 'Accountability' After Bondi Saved Her Epstein Files Search HistoryNia Prater / New York Magazine: Did Bondi Spy on Lawmakers' Epstein Search History?Claudia Grisales / NPR: For the first time, lawmakers are reviewing unredacted copies of the Epstein files","text":"memeorandum is an auto-generated summary of the stories that US political commentators are discussing online right now.\n\nUnlike sister sites Techmeme and Mediagazer, it is not a human-edited news outlet, but rather a media-monitoring tool for sophisticated news consumers."},{"url":"https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/12/bondi-spying-on-congressional-epstein-searches-should-be-a-major-scandal/","title":"Bondi Spying On Congressional Epstein Searches Should Be A Major Scandal","summary":"And then bringing that surveillance data to a congressional hearing to use as political ammunition.\nThe DOJ has no business whatsoever surveilling what members of Congress—who have oversight authority over the Justice Department—are searching.\nWay back in 2014, the CIA illegally spied on searches by Senate staffers who were investigating the CIA's torture program.\nThe executive branch surveilling congressional oversight is a fundamental violation of separation of powers.\nHe's had nearly a decade to show whether or not the version of Lindsey Graham who said "if we elected Donald Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it" still exists, and it's clear that Lindsey Graham is long gone.","clusterId":"7a3dd8c3-fb40-4003-9aa9-f62432a69cf4","leadStory":false,"snippet":null,"text":"from the another-day,-another-scandal dept\n\nYesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. Among the more notable exchanges was when Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked some of Jeffrey Epstein's victims who were in the audience to stand up and indicate whether Bondi's DOJ had ever contacted them about their experiences. None of them had heard from the Justice Department. Bondi wouldn't even look at the victims as she frantically flipped through her prepared notes.\n\nAnd that's when news organizations, including Reuters, caught something alarming: one of the pages Bondi held up clearly showed searches that Jayapal herself had done of the Epstein files:\n\nThe Department of Justice—led by an Attorney General who is supposed to serve the public but has made clear her only role is protecting Donald Trump's personal interests—is actively surveilling what members of Congress are searching in the Epstein files. And then bringing that surveillance data to a congressional hearing to use as political ammunition.\n\nThis should be front-page news. It should be a major scandal. Honestly, it should be impeachable.\n\nThere is no legitimate investigative purpose here. No subpoena. Nothing at all. Just the executive branch tracking the oversight activities of the legislative branch, then weaponizing that information for political culture war point-scoring. The DOJ has no business whatsoever surveilling what members of Congress—who have oversight authority over the Justice Department—are searching.\n\nJayapal is rightly furious:\n\nWe've been here before. Way back in 2014, the CIA illegally spied on searches by Senate staffers who were investigating the CIA's torture program. It was considered a scandal at the time—because it was one. The executive branch surveilling congressional oversight is a fundamental violation of separation of powers. It's the kind of thing that, when it happens, should trigger immediate consequences.\n\nAnd yet.\n\nJust a few days ago, Senator Lindsey Graham—who has been one of the foremost defenders of government surveillance for years—blew up at a Verizon executive for complying with a subpoena that revealed Graham's call records (not the contents, just the metadata) from around January 6th, 2021.\n\n"If the shoe were on the other foot, it'd be front-page news all over the world that Republicans went after sitting Democratic senators' phone records," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who was among the Republicans in Congress whose records were accessed by prosecutors as they examined contacts between the president and allies on Capitol Hill.\n\n"I just want to let you know," he added, "I don't think I deserve what happened to me."\n\nThis is the same Lindsey Graham who, over a decade ago, said he was "glad" that the NSA was collecting his phone records because it magically kept him safe from terrorists. But now he's demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars for being "spied" on (he wasn't—a company complied with a valid subpoena in a legitimate investigation, which is how the legal system is supposed to work).\n\nSo here's the contrast: Graham is demanding money and media attention because a company followed the law. Meanwhile, the Attorney General is actually surveilling a Democratic member of Congress's oversight activities—with no legal basis whatsoever—and using that surveillance for political theater in a manner clearly designed as a warning shot to congressional reps investigating the Epstein Files. Pam Bondi wants you to know she's watching you.\n\nGraham claimed that if the shoe were on the other foot, it would be "front-page news all over the world." Well, Senator, here's your chance. The shoe is very much on the other foot. It's worse than what happened to you, because what happened to you was legal and appropriate, and what's happening to Jayapal is neither.\n\nBut we all know Graham won't speak out against this administration. He's had nearly a decade to show whether or not the version of Lindsey Graham who said "if we elected Donald Trump, we will get destroyed… and we will deserve it" still exists, and it's clear that Lindsey Graham is long gone. This one only serves Donald Trump and himself, not the American people.\n\nBut this actually matters: if the DOJ can surveil what members of Congress search in oversight files—and then use that surveillance as a weapon in public hearings—congressional oversight of the executive branch is dead. That's the whole point of separation of powers. The people who are supposed to watch the watchmen can't do their jobs if the watchmen are surveilling them.\n\nAnd remember: Bondi didn't hide this. She brought it to the hearing. She held it up when she knew cameras would catch what was going on. She wanted Jayapal—and every other member of Congress—to see exactly what she's doing.\n\nThis administration doesn't fear consequences for this kind of vast abuse of power because there haven't been any. And the longer that remains true, the worse it's going to get."},{"url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/12/epstein-files-doj-pam-bondi-pramila-jayapal.html","title":"Epstein files: DOJ says it logs Congress members' searches to 'protect' victim information","summary":"The Department of Justice said Thursday that it "logs all searches" by members of Congress on its data systems holding evidence about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to guard against the public release of information about his victims.\nJayapal, D-Wash., called the monitoring of her searches in the Epstein files "totally inappropriate," and "outrageous."\nSeveral other members of Congress in recent days visited the DOJ to examine the Epstein files, including documents that were not among the more than 3 million files related to the predator that have been publicly released.\nIn a statement to CNBC on Thursday, a DOJ spokeswoman said, "DOJ has extended Congress the opportunity to review unredacted documents in the Epstein files."\n"As a part of that review, DOJ logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information," the spokeswoman said.","clusterId":"7a3dd8c3-fb40-4003-9aa9-f62432a69cf4","leadStory":false,"snippet":null,"text":"The Department of Justice said Thursday that it "logs all searches" by members of Congress on its data systems holding evidence about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to guard against the public release of information about his victims.\n\nThe DOJ's statement came a day after a document contained in a binder used by Attorney General Pam Bondi at a House Judiciary Committee hearing indicated the DOJ had logged information about searches of the so-called Epstein files by Rep. Pramila Jayapal.\n\nJayapal, D-Wash., called the monitoring of her searches in the Epstein files "totally inappropriate," and "outrageous."\n\nSeveral other members of Congress in recent days visited the DOJ to examine the Epstein files, including documents that were not among the more than 3 million files related to the predator that have been publicly released.\n\nIn a statement to CNBC on Thursday, a DOJ spokeswoman said, "DOJ has extended Congress the opportunity to review unredacted documents in the Epstein files."\n\n"As a part of that review, DOJ logs all searches made on its systems to protect against the release of victim information," the spokeswoman said.\n\nHouse Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday night said he had not seen or heard anything about the DOJ logging Japayal's searches of the Epstein files, "but that would be inappropriate if it happened."\n\nJayapal at Wednesday's hearing exchanged sharp words with Bondi after a group of women in the room who had been sexually abused by Epstein to indicate if they had been unable to meet with the DOJ."},{"url":"https://dailycaller.com/2026/02/12/pam-bondi-pramila-jayapal-search-history-epstein-doj-nancy-mace/","title":"DOJ Allegedly Monitoring Lawmakers Accessing Epstein Records","summary":"The Justice Department (DOJ) is allegedly monitoring lawmakers accessing records pertaining to the late convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein.\nThe image seemed to show a page labeled as Democrat Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal's "search history" during a review of the DOJ's release of the Epstein files.\nA photo of Jeffrey Epstein appeared to be in the center with an image of convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell positioned to the left.\n"It is totally inappropriate and against the separations of powers for the DOJ to surveil us as we search the Epstein files.\nBondi showed up today with a burn book that held a printed search history of exactly what emails I searched.","clusterId":"7a3dd8c3-fb40-4003-9aa9-f62432a69cf4","leadStory":false,"snippet":null,"text":"The Justice Department (DOJ) is allegedly monitoring lawmakers accessing records pertaining to the late convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein.\n\nDuring a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Feb. 11, a photograph appeared to capture the contents of Attorney General Pam Bondi's binder, according to a post by MS Now congressional correspondent Ali Vitali. The image seemed to show a page labeled as Democrat Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal's "search history" during a review of the DOJ's release of the Epstein files. (RELATED: Sparks Fly When Democrat Rep Pramila Jayapal Shouts At Pam Bondi About Epstein Files For 3 Minutes Straight)\n\nA photo of the binder taken during her testimony appeared to show a page bearing the header "Jayapal Pramila Search History." Beneath it was seemingly a list of keyword searches that included entries labeled "EFTA" followed by a six-digit number sequences.\n\nBeneath the search entries was a web-style diagram, according to the image. A photo of Jeffrey Epstein appeared to be in the center with an image of convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell positioned to the left. (RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell Refuses To Answer Epstein Questions — Unless Trump Sets Her Free)\n\nIn addition to Epstein and Maxwell, five other faces branched out from the center, according to the image. The faces and identifying details of six additional individuals were seemingly redacted on the page.\n\nJayapal responded to the image of the contents of Bondi's binder on X after the hearing. "It is totally inappropriate and against the separations of powers for the DOJ to surveil us as we search the Epstein files. Bondi showed up today with a burn book that held a printed search history of exactly what emails I searched. That is outrageous and I intend to pursue this and stop this spying on members," she wrote.\n\nThe document — which appeared to be part of a stapled packet tucked inside the binder — has fueled speculation about whether it allegedly listed all members of Congress who have visited the DOJ to review the files or only Democrat lawmakers.\n\nRepublican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, one of the original four Republicans to sign onto the discharge resolution for the Epstein Transparency Act, addressed the matter with a MeidasTouch reporter Feb. 11. The congresswoman alleged to the reporter and on X that she knew where to look to determine if the DOJ was tracking members as they searched the files.\n\n"I'm pretty tech savvy. I've played around with the system. They're tracking every file that we open. And when we open it, they are tracking everything. And you can see the way that they're tracking you, when you're allowed in, if you know where to look like I do," she told MeidasTouch.\n\nThe reporter followed up by asking Mace how someone would be able to find that information. (RELATED: How Epstein Used The Ivy League To Launder His Reputation)\n\n"I don't want to say because I don't want them to hide it, but I can see how they're tracking us. They give each of us a log in with their name attached to it and every single file that we open, regardless of if we even read it — every single file that we open, that file is tagged with our name. So they get the search history and the files that we opened — everything," the congresswoman continued.\n\nThe reporter asked Mace how accessible the system was and what the setup looked like. "It looked like Microsoft from '95," she said, describing the system as "clunky." However, Mace noted that by her second day reviewing the files, she had become more proficient navigating it.\n\nWhen asked about the page photographed inside Bondi's binder that appeared to show Jayapal's search history while reviewing the Epstein documents, a DOJ spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the, "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.""}}]}
Bondi's Burn Book: When the Watchmen Watch Back
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