Republicans warn Bondi not to bury Epstein files after law’s passage

Within hours of Donald Trump signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, Republican senators were on the ground to issue a pointed message to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi: don’t bury these documents.

The bill’s passage marked a rare moment of bipartisan support in an otherwise ideologically fractured Congress as it now sets a 30-day deadline for the release of Department of Justice files related to the actions of convicted sex offender of minors and financier Jeffrey Epstein, dubbed by a judge “the most infamous pedophile in American history”.

It also marked a rare defeat for Trump, whose own contacts with Epstein have been the subject of intense speculation, along with many other powerful figures who associated with the sex trafficker who killed himself in 2019. Trump had originally been against the passage of the bill, before switching in the face of a rebellion in his own party.

The bill passed the House of Representatives with 427 votes and sailed through the Senate by unanimous consent, a level of cross party support rarely seen. Rather than celebrating, many Republican lawmakers spent the week bracing for what they fear may come: a slow drip of information, justified one way or another by Bondi’s justice department.

“People who feel very strongly about this will feel like they’ve been duped” if the justice department claims “we can’t release anything because of an active investigation,” said Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “I don’t think that that will help calm the suspicions many have harbored for a long while on this.”

The anxiety stems from the Trump administration’s earlier resistance to transparency, which included months of dismissing public demands – and even insults for those calling for release – before reversing course this week when its passage became inevitable.

Now, with Bondi opening investigations into exclusively Democrats mentioned in Epstein’s correspondence, Republicans are watching closely for signs the department might use those probes as a reason to redact or withhold materials as they are now part of an ongoing investigation.

“If you do a blanket hold, I think that they’re going to have a lot of people angry,” said Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a judiciary committee member. “It would just add fuel to the fire if they don’t produce something meaningful” he added later.

The legislation mandates release of unclassified materials within 30 days in a searchable format. Yet it contains exemptions for information that could jeopardize active investigations and for material depicting minors – potential escape hatches the Justice Department could exploit.

The bill requires disclosure of materials related not only to Epstein but also to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse.

Bondi acknowledged the congressional mandate on Wednesday, saying the department would “follow the law” while “protecting victims but also providing maximum transparency.”

Still, her carefully measured words offered little comfort to some skeptics on Capitol Hill. Tillis pressed for clarity on any redactions. “I think they would do well to figure how to release as much as possible and then have a very well-articulated reason for that which they can’t,” he said.

Republican senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, however, was more optimistic. “Congress has spoken. I fully expect the Justice Department to release all the documents. It will take a while, but I believe they’ve started,” he said, adding, “I’m hoping we’ll see the first tranche…after Thanksgiving.”

The urgency reflects deep skepticism about how the justice department has handled the case historically.

In 2008, then-US attorney Alexander Acosta approved a non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution charges, avoiding federal sex-trafficking prosecutions. Epstein served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in a minimum-security facility with work-release privileges. That deal, later ruled to have violated victims’ rights, shielded Epstein from far more serious federal charges for over a decade until his 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Epstein died in federal custody in August of that year, one month after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide.

The Epstein files, so far roughly tens of thousands of pages of emails and correspondence released by the House Oversight Committee, detail the convicted sex offender’s connections across political, academic, and financial elites. Names from both parties appear, though Trump’s comes up over a thousand times, mostly linked to Epstein’s apparent obsession with the presidency.

Senate majority leader John Thune, a Republican, weighed in on the side of his colleagues. “I trust the judgment of the justice department to ensure that whatever files they release protect the victims,” he said. Congress had “clear intent” to “get the information out there”, he added

The near-unanimous support – marred by just one dissenting vote in the House – reflects both public interest and political stakes. The justice department now has 30 days to make the materials available in searchable format. The FBI has indicated its records include more than 300 gigabytes of data and evidence. Content depicting child abuse will remain sealed, and information that could compromise ongoing investigations may be withheld or redacted.

The real test is now with Bondi’s department. Republican senators have made it clear they will scrutinize any major delays or broad redactions, so how swiftly and transparently the justice department acts could shape perceptions of the Trump administration’s commitment to accountability on a highly sensitive matter.

Republican senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri summed it up: “All the credible information that can be released should be released.”