Republican Rep. Thomas Massie says lawmakers who’ve taken the Department of Justice up on the opportunity to view unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files are now running into a new obstacle.
Massie, who spearheaded the charge to force the DOJ to release all the files linked to the late pedophile alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about how the move that was initially seen as a win now appears to be plagued with problems. Starting this week, lawmakers have been allowed to access and review unredacted documents in a secure room at the DOJ’s offices in Washington, D.C. But the “good faith” offer is apparently not providing the kind of transparency lawmakers had hoped for.
“It’s a room with four computers, and it’s busy all the time. There’s always at least four congressmen in there,” Massie said. “And the main complaint that I hear as we search through these files is that when you unredact some of the files, you encounter more redactions.
“Then, when we asked the DOJ, why are these files redacted? Why can’t we remove the redactions? The DOJ says, ‘Well, that’s the form in which we received the files.’”
Massie said that if this is the case, then the DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi are violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the full release of original documents connected to Epstein from the DOJ, FBI, and federal prosecutors by Dec. 19, 2025.
“So what’s happened, it seems, is that the U.S. attorneys and/or the FBI have redacted documents given to the DOJ, and then the DOJ hasn’t done their diligence to go get the original documents,” Massie said.
“Sometimes you remove the black redaction, and you see a white redaction, and sometimes you try to remove the black redaction, and it’s all completely redacted still.”
Massie and Khanna have accused the DOJ of making unnecessary redactions to the Epstein files that have been released, including the names of alleged co-conspirators.
Khanna disclosed the names of six individuals, including billionaire Les Wexner, the founder of Victoria’s Secret, whose names were hidden in the files even though they were not victims of abuse.
Bondi, who has been widely criticized for her handling of the Epstein files saga, will testify before lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about the slow, heavily redacted release of the documents.
Speaking to CNN, Massie floated the possibility of holding Bondi in contempt if she evades his questions about the release of the Epstein files.
“It’s hard to refer a contempt [charge] or things like that on an attorney general to the attorney general. This is the problem that you run into. And so it’s going to be very difficult,” Massie said. “But we can compel other people to come testify, like the Oversight Committee is doing.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.
