Senate Democrats are turning to an obscure and relatively untested legal provision in an attempt to obtain the “Epstein files” — documents related to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“After missteps and failed promises by your Department regarding these files it is essential that the Trump Administration provide full transparency,” reads a letter from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and all Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We request all documents, files, evidence, or other materials in the possession of DOJ or FBI related to United States ofAmerica v. Jeffrey Epstein.”
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and first obtained by The New York Times, utilizes the “rule of five,” a provision that mandates executive agencies must submit relevant information if it’s been requested by five members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (or its House counterpart).
The provision became law in 1928. But it has rarely been used, and thus hasn’t been thoroughly scrutinized by the courts, which raises questions about whether the effort will succeed. The senators gave the Department of Justice an Aug. 15 deadline.
But this approach has, at the very least, offered another way for Democrats to keep the Epstein news cycle alive as Republicans and President Donald Trump hope for the opposite. Trump has said he wants people to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about” and that Democrats’ “new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”
”My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” he added. “They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.”
Democrats, on the other hand, have worked doggedly to keep Epstein’s name in the news. They joined forces with some Republicans, including Rep. Thomas Massie, on bipartisan legislation that would force the release of the DOJ’s Epstein documents. They are also seeking a discharge petition on the matter, which is a way to bypass House leadership, after Speaker Mike Johnson panned the effort.
Tensions on the issue erupted earlier this month after the DOJ walked back its promises to release more Epstein material and issued a memo in early July that was met with skepticism and frustration by some of the president’s most fervent MAGA supporters.
The Wall Street Journal later broke two stories: one that Trump had sent Epstein a “bawdy” letter and another that claimed Bondi told the president his name was among many in the DOJ’s Epstein documents.
The White House has pushed back on the Journal’s reporting. Trump also filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch.