Congresswoman Accuses Pam Bondi of Trying to ‘Surveil’ Her After Photo Seemingly Shows AG Tracked Her Epstein Files Search History

 

A photographer at Wednesday’s blockbuster House Judiciary hearing captured an image of Attorney General Pam Bondi with a document appearing to show Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-WA) searches on the Epstein Files — which she and other members of Congress were given access to two days earlier.

Getty photographer Roberto Schmidt snapped a picture of the AG with a document titled “Jayapal Pramila Search History” —— along with numerous file names and document descriptions.

Here is a screenshot of the image as aired on MS NOW in the 3 p.m. ET hour:

screenshot

MS NOW senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin walked viewers through what they were seeing.

“The image that you’re looking at right there shows on the inside front cover of that binder, a one page sheet that at the top says: Jayapal Pramila search history,” Rubin said. “And then it lists a number of things that are EFTA — stands for Epstein Files Transparency Act and a bunch of numbers after that, I can tell you from experience, that is how the Epstein files have been produced in the Department of Justice’s library.”

Rubin added, “Congresswoman Jayapal has told the public that yesterday she went to the Department of Justice to take them up on their offer to view unredacted documents. We know that there are three or four monitors there where members can come in from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m and look at some of the documents that are in the Epstein files library in their unredacted form. We don’t know whether this correlates to her search history. But one possibility is that the Department of Justice can look to see how congresswoman Jayapal — having some sort of like username — what her search history was with respect to it, and be prepared to address questions about what she saw in those files in addition to any other quote-unquote opposition research that the attorney general had on her.”

“So it would be a fair question to ask DOJ whether they’re surveilling individual lawmakers and their searches?” MS NOW anchor Katy Tur asked Rubin.

“I think it’s a fair question to ask,” Rubin said.

Speaking with MS NOW’s Ali Vitali, Jayapal blasted Bondi after learning about the photo.

“It’s totally inappropriate,” Jayapal told Vitali. “Is this is whole reason they opened [the files] up to us two days early? So they could essentially surveil members to see what we were gonna ask her about?”

Jayapal and Bondi had one of the more contentious exchanges among many heated back-and-forths at the hearing. Jayapal pointed out the Epstein survivors in the room and asked the attorney general to apologize to them.

“I’m not going to get in the gutter with this woman,” Bondi said. “She’s doing theatrics.”

In an X post, Jayapal added, “It is totally inappropriate and against the separations of powers for the DOJ to surveil us as we search the Epstein files. Bondi showed up today with a burn book that held a printed search history of exactly what emails I searched. That is outrageous and I intend to pursue this and stop this spying on members.”

Watch above, via MS NOW.

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Joe DePaolo is the Editor in Chief of Mediaite. Email him here: joed@mediaite.com Follow him on X: @joe_depaolo