Thomas Massie Floats the Prospect of a Contempt Charge for Pam Bondi if She Ducks His Questions About Epstein Files

 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) suggested on Tuesday that holding Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt is on the table — just ahead of Bondi testifying before the House Judiciary Committee.

Massie joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on The Source where he blasted the Department of Justice once again for failing to meet a December deadline set by Congress to release all files related to convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Massie teased that he will have five minutes to question Bondi on Wednesday, and he’s got plenty to ask. The congressman claimed lawmakers have not had access to “totally unredacted” files” and he’s seen names redacted — like Epstein associate and former Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner — for no apparent reason.

“If they’ll admit that they’re making mistakes and that their document production is not done, I could trust them,” Massie said on Tuesday about the DOJ.

Massie, who co-authored the legislation forcing the release of the Epstein files, first suggested an “inherent contempt charge” against Bondi on Sunday in a CBS interview.

“The quickest way, and I think most expeditious way, to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi,” he said.

The lawmaker told Collins that option is still on the table if he doesn’t get suitable answers by tomorrow. He also said Congress may need to compel some people named in the Epstein files to testify.

“You know, 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,” Massie said. “And so it’s going to be very difficult. But we can compel other people to come testify.”

Check out the exchange below:

KAITLAN COLLINS: So you’re going in there, you’re saying that you see documents, last night you said you saw names that shouldn’t be redacted that were redacted, today you’re seeing documents that are just redacted when you should be viewing totally unredacted documents behind this, behind closed doors in this private room, and that you’re also seeing, you know, or you’re not seeing documents that should be in there that aren’t in there. I mean, do you trust the Justice Department at this point right now based on what you can see behind the scenes?

THOMAS MASSIE: Well, if they’ll admit that they’re making mistakes and that their document production is not done, I could trust them, but I can’t trust them if they say, as Todd Blanche did in his press conference that this is it, there’s no more, it’s over. That can’t be true. And so tomorrow, we’re going to have Pam Bondi in the Judiciary Committee. So I’ll have five minutes to ask her these questions.

COLLINS: And do you think you’ll get these answers?

MASSIE: I hope I do.

COLLINS: And what happens if you don’t?

MASSIE: You know, 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. But we can compel other people to come testify, like the Oversight Committee is doing. I’m no longer on the Oversight Committee, I’m on the Judiciary Committee, but the Oversight Committee can compel some of these people that are named in these files to come and testify.

COLLINS: Yeah, have you heard from the Justice Department directly, or is it just the tweets at you that you’ve heard from them on, or they’re posting at you?

MASSIE: There is communication between my staff and Justice Department staff, but I haven’t heard, for instance, from Todd Blanche directly.

Watch above via CNN.

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Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.