'Put them in the witness chair!' Dem lawmaker reveals plan to force Epstein files' release
As the Justice Department continues its phased rollout of releasing Jeffrey Epstein files – a rollout critics say is in blatant violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) – Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said Sunday he’s ready to mount an all-out war against the Trump administration to force its hand.
“Every member of the [House] Judiciary Committee – every Republican, every Democrat – voted to release these documents and to have them in our hands yesterday,” Swalwell said during an appearance Sunday on MS NOW. “Not today, not tomorrow, yesterday. They have not done that yet.”
The DOJ was mandated by law to release its trove of Epstein files by Dec. 19, a mandate signed off on by every member of Congress save for one, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA). Instead, the DOJ released only a fraction of its files on Epstein by the deadline, and with unlawful redactions.
And, with the DOJ announcing Christmas Eve that it had discovered an additional 1 million files on Epstein, Democratic lawmakers like Swalwell are ready to take matters into their own hands.
"Here's what we can do: we can restrict funding to the Department of Justice; we can bring officials in under inherent contempt; also what we can do is we can bring them in for hearings,” Swalwell said.
“I would recommend that's the best thing that we can do, to have a public account and to put them in the witness chair and ask where the hell are these files and why are you keeping Donald Trump's name out of them?”
Among the countless examples of unlawful redactions made to the Epstein files released by the DOJ – with the EFTA limiting redactions to protecting the identity of victims and minors – include a supposed photograph of Trump with Epstein-associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
The supposed photo in question was uncovered by FBI agents on Steve Bannon’s phone, with the image completely blacked out in an FBI email released by the DOJ. Under the EFTA, the redaction of the photo would only be lawful if Trump were somehow considered either a minor or a victim of Epstein’s.