Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer threatened to sue the Trump administration if it does not release the Epstein files, after it missed a deadline to provide the information.
“It’s August 15th, the deadline for Trump and Bondi to release the Epstein files to us under the Rule of 5,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, wrote on X. “They’re now breaking the law to hide the files.”
He called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, to appoint a lawyer to defend the Senate in court and get the files released to the chamber.
“If he chooses complicity — we’ll take them to court ourselves,” he said.
Senate Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month invoked a rare oversight law to try to force the Department of Justice to release the files of the Epstein sex-trafficking case.
The goal was to get the files released to the public, which Attorney General Pam Bondi and the rest of President Trump’s administration promised, but did not do.
“After promising full transparency for years, every single time Trump, his administration [and] Republican leaders have had a chance to be transparent about the Epstein files, they’ve chosen to hide,” Mr. Schumer said when announcing the move at the end of July.
“The evasions, the delays, the excuses — they are not just odd, they’re alarming,” he said. “It begs the question, if there’s nothing to hide. Why all the evasiveness?”
The seven Democrats on the committee wrote a letter to Ms. Bondi requesting the files. The letter invokes “the Rule of Five” that requires executive agencies to release information when at least five members of the committee request it.
The law doesn’t have any limitations on the information that can be released as long as it’s within the jurisdiction of the committee, but the Justice Department can withhold information that is sealed or considered sensitive.
The Epstein files have been at the top of the headlines since Ms. Bondi said there was no incriminating “client list” of people who participated in Epstein’s sex-trafficking plans and that no further files would be released. She had led Justice Department and FBI officials in reviewing the files and said “that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
“Much of the material is subject to court-ordered sealing. Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial, as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing,” a DOJ memo on the decision said. “Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography.”
Questions about Mr. Trump’s ties to Epstein, who committed suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges, have continued. Mr. Trump was growing increasingly annoyed about the questions, saying he was not involved and that he had severed ties with Epstein after he started poaching employees from him.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has given its own Aug. 19 deadline to the Justice Department to respond to its subpoena for the files.
That committee issued subpoenas this month to former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to get them to come and answer questions in an expanding congressional probe into the Epstein case.
The Washington Times has reached out to the Justice Department, the White House and Mr. Thune’s office for comment.
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this story.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.