Long Beach Rep. Robert Garcia slams DOJ’s tracking of lawmakers’ Epstein files searches

LONG BEACH, Calif. () — Congressman Robert Garcia, a Democrat from Long Beach, says he is outraged at what is still being kept secret after reviewing unredacted Epstein files at the Department of Justice.

Garcia is pushing to have all the documents released.

“There are enormous amount of redactions of powerful wealthy men who are not supposed to be redacted as part of the law,” Garcia told reporters. “So why are we protecting these powerful billionaires? Some of whom are very well-known names.”

This week, the Department of Justice allowed members of Congress to view unredacted Epstein files. Garcia is one of the officials who had access.

The review process took place in person at the Justice Department on their computers. Now there are allegations the DOJ was tracking what lawmakers were searching for as they viewed the files.

“I had no idea that my searches were being tracked by our own government in secret,” Garcia said. “It’s only now that it’s been discovered that we know that the members of Congress that have been looking at the files, everything we’ve been looking for has been tracked in secret by the Department of Justice.”

Casey Wasserman, the LA28 organizing committee chairman, has been linked to Jeffrey Epstein in a series of emails. Garcia was asked if Wasserman should resign.

“There’s a lot of folks obviously in the files. From what we understand, and I haven’t personally viewed those, I haven’t seen any sort criminal activity that’s there, but as far as whether Mr. Wasserman is going to be engaged, that’s really going to be up to the board and him,” Garcia said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who say the department mishandled survivors’ information and improperly redacted files. In addition, Garcia said thousands and thousands of files are still unreleased.

“Over 50% of the files have not been released to the public or the Congress,” he said. “So half of the Epstein files, essentially, are still in private. That’s not acceptable.”