Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is asking the Senate to join him in a legal action to compel the Department of Justice to release all of its files on notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Schumer announced that he would introduce a resolution to take legal action against the DOJ, allowing them to sue for a court order demanding the full release of the files. Schumer blasted the DOJ for “its blatant disregard of the law” in refusing to release all the files before the Dec. 19 deadline.
The initial, partial release of the Epstein files was met with widespread criticism by lawmakers.
“The American people deserve full transparency, and Senate Democrats will use every tool at our disposal to ensure they get it. This administration cannot be allowed to hide the truth,” Schumer wrote on X. In a separate statement, Schumer said the Trump administration was acting unlawfully.
“The Trump Department of Justice dumped redactions and withheld the evidence, which breaks the law,” Schumer said. As CBS reported, “Many of the documents contained significant redactions, including whole pages of records that were blacked out.”
NEWS: I am introducing a resolution directing the Senate to initiate legal action against the DOJ for its blatant disregard of the law in its refusal to release the complete Epstein files.
The American people deserve full transparency, and Senate Democrats will use every tool at… pic.twitter.com/jLg6giXKBD
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 22, 2025
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a driving force in the bipartisan push to release the files, bashed the DOJ in a social media post on Monday. “The survivors deserve justice. The DOJ release does not comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and does not provide what the survivors are guaranteed under the new law,” Massie wrote.
Massie’s Democratic counterpart, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., suggested impeachment as a possible consequence. Khanna said that he and Massie are “working on drafting article of impeachment and inherent contempt” against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the slow, partial release, saying that critics “don’t want us to protect victims.”
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“The reason why we are still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that: to protect victims,” Blanche said on Sunday’s Meet The Press.
On Monday, 18 Epstein survivors publicly slammed the DOJ for its handling of the release of the files, writing in an open letter that “the public received a fraction of the files, and what we received was riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation.”
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