Leader Schumer Unanimous Consent Request Remarks Urging The Senate To Pass His Bill To Sue The Justice Department For Their Failure To Comply With The Epstein Files[...]

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor urging the Senate to pass his bill allowing for the Senate to sue the Justice Department for their failure to release the full Epstein files in compliance with the Epstein Transparency Act.

Two months ago, nearly every single member of the House and Senate voted to pass a very simple bill with a very simple message: release the Epstein files. The legal deadline to release the files was December the 19^th, nearly fifty days ago. And the American people are still waiting for the truth to come out. The December 19^th deadline was not a recommendation. It wasn't a suggestion. Releasing the Epstein files is the law, a law that every single member of this chamber-Democrat, Republican, Independent-supported, as well as every member of the House save one.

So where are we today, fifty days past the deadline?

At best, according to the Department of Justice's own admissions, maybe half of all the available Epstein files have been released. That means millions of documents-which contain the names of conspirators, financial records, travel logs, letters, emails, the public deserves to see the documents of the heinous crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators-remain shrouded in darkness. These are things the public deserves to see and they are shrouded in darkness.

Whatever materials have been released have often been redacted to an absurd degree. Hundreds of pages have been blotted out, to the point where it's just a wall of black ink. That's it, a wall of black ink. Look at this. There are hundreds of pages that look just like this. This is not transparency. This is not what the law requires. This is a mockery of the truth, and an insult to the survivors. What makes this all the more sickening is that in over a thousand instances, the Justice Department failed to follow the law and leaked the identities of over 100 victims.

But do you know who the Justice Department did seem to protect? Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirators. You know who else the Justice Department seemed to protect? Donald Trump. What is Pam Bondi trying to hide?

Enough is enough. Today, I come to the floor to seek unanimous passage of a resolution directing the Senate to sue the Trump administration for violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Fifteen of my Democratic colleagues have joined in co-sponsoring this resolution, and I thank every single one of them for standing firm.

I urge my Republican colleagues not to stand in the way today. It is the height of absurdity for Republicans to have supported the Epstein Files Transparency Act but then go ahead and object to enforcing it. What hypocrisy. Objecting today would completely cancel out the whole point of Republicans supporting the law in the first place.

And finally, the people who have lost the most-the people who have suffered the most-are Jeffrey Epstein's victims.

With me I have a letter from about twenty of the victims explaining how reckless and dangerous it was for the DOJ to carelessly release victims' information, while going to great lengths to redact the names of co-conspirators.

So I ask unanimous consent that this letter from Jeffrey Epstein's survivors detailing the grave harms of the DOJ's careless release of victims' identities be entered in congressional record.

Enough is enough. Congress spoke with one voice when it passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The deadline is long past, and the Trump Justice Department is still breaking the law.

Senate Democrats are exhausting every possible avenue to force the administration to do what it is already legally required to do: release the complete files, deliver transparency and justice, finally, to Epstein's victims.

If the administration will not follow the law, which it isn't, the Senate must act. No one - not even the president - is above the law.

The question before Senate Republicans today is simple: will they enforce the law, that they helped pass, or object and help keep the Epstein files hidden?

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