Bondi may be out, but DOJ's Epstein files cover-up remains | Opinion

Any Donald Trump presidency inevitably evolves into a constellation of scandals, with him at the center of a scurrilous universe, as controversies orbit near him and then away, only to return again.

Trump can't stop that. So he tries to capitalize on it, using one scandal to distract from another. The Epstein files are a humiliating mess? Let's go to war with Iran! The war with Iran became a quagmire? Let's pick a fight with the pope!

We know it. We see it. But the way the Epstein files scandal – centered on millions of documents about Trump's former pal, the dead convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – came back into our celestial view was astounding.

First lady Melania Trump kicked this off with a bewildering April 9 brief speech from the White House, which nobody asked for or was expecting, in which she complained about "false smears" connecting her with Epstein, despite plenty of photographs that have circulated for years that show her and her husband quite cozy with the sex offender.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who did more than anyone in the Trump administration to make the Epstein files a political minefield, kept the scandal's renewed momentum going by refusing to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which wanted to question her about the files.

And then acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, picking up right where Bondi left off before Trump fired her on April 2 for this mess, appeared on Fox News on April 14 with a message that amounted to: The Department of Justice has provided an unfettered view … to everything we want you to see in the Epstein files, and now this is over.

Blanche is using the same tactics Bondi deployed. Look how well that went for her.

Team Trump boosting the Epstein files is no accident

In his interview, the acting attorney general insisted that the DOJ reviewed 6 million documents and released "anything associated with the Epstein files.”

Blanche, a former Trump criminal defense attorney who has helped twist and distort the DOJ into a tool of mendacity that protects the president at all costs while attacking his perceived enemies, has a certain credibility problem here.

This isn't some random bureaucratic task. A bipartisan movement in Congress, driven specifically by the DOJ's lack of transparency in the Epstein files, overwhelmingly passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November. Trump, who fought to stop that legislation, grudgingly signed it into law.

The DOJ didn't meet the 30-day deadline to release all of the Epstein files. And the two key sponsors of the legislation, Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California, told me the DOJ still hasn't complied with the law.

Blanche told Fox News that any member of Congress can come to the DOJ and inspect the Epstein files in unredacted format. But here's what Blanche didn't say: He's making the call on what is and is not an Epstein file, and what Congress can and cannot see.

Massie, in a statement sent to me, accused Blanche of "falsely asserting deliberative privilege to shield certain required documents" covered by his legislation. And he said many of the documents that members of Congress can view remain redacted because the DOJ made no effort to get original, unredacted copies, as required by the law

"The Department of Justice did not comply with (the law) under former Attorney General Bondi, and it has not done so under Acting Attorney General Blanche," Massie told me.

Khanna sent Blanche a letter after his Fox News interview, noting that the law requires the DOJ to offer written explanations as to why some documents are redacted. "To date, no such justification has been provided," Khanna wrote.

Khanna, in a statement he sent me in response to questions, wrote: "The American people are outraged by this administration’s cover-up."

Look for strategic Epstein outrage as midterms near

That outrage is the next looming planet in Trump's constellation of scandals.

Blanche is unwilling to change course. And the midterm elections are less than seven months away. Democrats already look primed to grab control of the House from Republicans and may also seize the Senate.

And what's going to happen between now and then?

Bondi claimed she could skip the House Oversight Committee subpoena because she's no longer attorney general. But a bipartisan mix of committee members still want to hear from Bondi, and a spokesperson for the committee said it would work to reschedule her testimony.

It's no coincidence that Trump fired Bondi just before she's supposed to testify. He didn't want us to hear what she would say. So it's likely Bondi will resist complying with her subpoena.

Hmm, a drawn-out fight about transparency and the Epstein files in the lead-up to the midterms. What could go wrong for Republicans there?

A DOJ spokesperson, in a statement about the unreleased files, told me the department "erred on the side of over-collecting from our components to ensure we collected everything necessary" according to the law. Of the 6 million documents, half were "entirely unrelated, privileged, or were duplicative," the spokesperson added.

There's a "take our word for it" vibe in that from a DOJ that has proved during Trump's second term that we can't take their word on anything. So the Epstein files fight will continue, right into the midterms.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan.