MASSIEFLIX

CNN The Lead: Massie Says DOJ Is Withholding Those Documents

Jan 8, 2026 · 6:31 epsteincnndojtransparency

On Jake Tapper's The Lead: Massie says DOJ is still withholding Epstein documents the law already required.

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  1. And our politics lead. Hey, remember the Epstein files? Well, two key lawmakers, one Democrat, one Republican, on the House Judiciary Committee say the Justice Department can't be trusted to
  2. release all of the files on Jeffrey Epste despite the fact that there's a law requiring them to do so. So, this afternoon, they asked a judge to appoint a special master or an independent
  3. monitor to oversee the process. This request comes a few days after the Justice Department said it's released less than 1% of the Epstein files and
  4. they're still reviewing more than 2 million documents. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky joins me now. He and Democratic Congressman Rohan of California are
  5. asking for this special master. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. So, you don't trust the Justice Department to comply with the law. Why not? >> Well, it's not a matter of opinion now.
  6. They're not in compliance with the law. They've missed two deadlines. The first was a 30-day deadline to release material to the public and the second was a 15-day deadline to release some
  7. information to Congress. But what I'm concerned about is not the volume of material that they haven't released. It's specific documents they haven't
  8. given us where we know there are individuals who will be named. They're withholding those documents. Also, we believe they're overredacting the files
  9. in um contravention of the law, the the letter of the law. >> So, yeah. >> Anyway, la last month before retiring
  10. from Congress, one of the few Republicans supporting your effort, now former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, she spoke with the New York Times about how this issue created
  11. this rift with President Trump. And in the interview, she talked about President Trump calling her a upset after she threatened to identify men who abused Epstein survivors. And the Times
  12. writes, quote, Green says she expressed her perplexity over his entrance. According to Green, Trump replied, quote, "My friends will get hurt." I'm
  13. sure you saw that. What's your reaction? Well, you know, I knew about that for at least a week or two before that was said because Marjorie shared that with me
  14. privately the day it happened. So, I I have even more reason to believe that happened than the general public. Um,
  15. that's what I believe. You know, I'm not concerned that the president is implicated criminally in these files. He may be embarrassed, but he's had
  16. embarrassing issues before. I think he has friends who are going to be criminally implicated. And if not, I think there's some serious
  17. reputational harm that's going to happen. Maybe you'll have names taken off of buildings and scholarships renamed as a result of these releases.
  18. But this, Jake, this gets to uh the the meat of our law. We we say in the law that you can't redact names to avoid
  19. embarrassment. Yet, we see that the DOJ in a letter to Congress has said that they're going to use the Privacy Act as cover to avoid releasing names under the
  20. Privacy Act. The other thing that they've violated in our law is we say you have to release internal communications, including decisions
  21. about whether to prosecute or not. And now they're citing a a FOYA standard that has no bearing on our law. And if it did, our law would override their law
  22. because it's a later law. They're they're citing FOYA standards that allows the government to keep internal deliberations secret. But the president signed this bill. They have to release
  23. this information and that's why we're asking for a special master. >> So I guess the question is what what can you do about it? Uh even if the president doesn't think that there are
  24. any limits to his power, you know, the constitution suggests that there are three co-equal branches. You've threatened uh to try to hold US Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of
  25. Congress if these Epstein files are not adequately released. When is your grace period for AG Bondi going to uh expire?
  26. >> Well, it it expired today. We're but we're escalating the things that we can do. And we're starting with what we feel is the most polite, expeditious way to
  27. get to a release of the files, which is to ask for a special master. And we're hoping that uh Judge Ingelmmyer will receive our amiki cure um well and do
  28. that. And like you said, there there are next steps beyond that. There's contempt which requires a referral to the DOJ. Now the problem with that is if you
  29. refer contempt of Congress to the DOJ, they're not going to prosecute it. They never do and they wait for Congress to expire. So there's also inherent
  30. contempt which hasn't been practiced in over 80 years. um we're drafting that and that's more desirable than
  31. impeachment because inherent contempt is resolved in one chamber of Congress whereas impeachment would have to go also to the Senate. So those are the you
  32. know escalating degrees of things that we can do. But I also want to remind those folks at the DOJ, you can be prosecuted by a future DOJ for violating
  33. this law because it's a law. It's not a congressional subpoena that expires at the end of this Congress. It will last forever. >> This is gutsy what you're doing. And
  34. President Trump is targeting you. You're up for re-election this November. Obviously, on Monday, President Trump posted on Truth Social a photograph of him with your primary challenger,
  35. retired Navy Seal officer Ed Gallerin, uh Trump writing that Captain Ed Gallerin has my complete and total endorsement against quote unquote Congressman Thomas Massie. He only votes
  36. against the Republican party, making life very easy for the radical left," unquote. Obviously, that's factually incorrect. I'm sure you run you vote with the Republican party like 90 or 95%
  37. of the time, but what's your reaction? >> Yeah, I vote 91% of the time with the party, but when they're covering up for pedophiles or starting a new war or doing regime change or bankrupting the
  38. country and that 9% Jake, I'm not with my party. Um, it definitely hurts me to campaign with the president against me.
  39. I've got a Republican primary. It's going to be hotly contested. And that's why, Jake, you don't see other members of the Republican party sticking their
  40. necks out. They're afraid of the president. Ironically though, after that tweet, I raised $80,000 in in people who want to see somebody up
  41. here who will speak their mind and and speak for their constituents instead of just for their party. And by the way, most of those donors are Trump supporters. They just want to see a
  42. Republican who will exhibit some independent thought. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. Thanks so much for joining us.

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