{"id":5749,"date":"2025-12-21T20:15:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=5749"},"modified":"2025-12-21T20:15:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T20:15:27","slug":"inherent-contempt-charges-are-being-drafted-to-fine-ag-pam-bondi-over-epstein-files-congressmen-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=5749","title":{"rendered":"Inherent contempt charges are being drafted to fine AG Pam Bondi over Epstein files, congressmen say"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The members of Congress who led the effort to release files on Jeffrey Epstein are eyeing penalties for the Justice Department after it failed to disclose all its documents on the late sex trafficker.<\/p>\n

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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., spearheaded passage of the overwhelmingly bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, but they have said the records published don\u2019t comply with the law, which required that all of them be made public on Friday.<\/p>\n

Instead, just a\u00a0small fraction of the total are out so far, with more expected in the coming weeks, and many of the documents are heavily redacted. The Justice Department maintains that it is in compliance with the law.<\/p>\n

In an interview on CBS News\u2019 Face the Nation<\/em> on Sunday, Massie upped the ante in the dispute over obtaining all the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several ways to get at this. Some take longer. Some are shorter. The quickest way, and I think most expeditious way, to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi, and that doesn\u2019t require going through the courts,\u201d he said. \u201cBasically Ro Khanna and I are talking about and drafting that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And unlike the process for impeachment and removal, the Senate\u2019s approval wouldn\u2019t be necessary for inherent contempt, Khanna pointed out.<\/p>\n

He added that he and Massie are building a bipartisan coalition to \u201cfine Pam Bondi for every day that she\u2019s not releasing these documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of holding them accountable, Pam Bondi is breaking the law,\u201d Khanna said. \u201cAnd this is the corrupt system, the Epstein class that people are sick of. So I believe we\u2019re going to get bipartisan support in holding her accountable, and a committee of Congress should determine whether these redactions are justified or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was defiant in the face of potential legal consequences over not fully releasing the Epstein files. <\/p>\n

In an interview Sunday with\u00a0NBC\u2019s\u00a0Meet the Press with Kristen Welker<\/em>, he argued that the extensive redactions were necessary to protect victims and that releasing the documents on a rolling basis instead of all at once still complied with the law.<\/p>\n

When asked whether he takes threats of impeachment or contempt charges seriously, he replied, \u201cNot even a little bit. Bring it on. We are doing everything we\u2019re supposed to be doing to comply with this statute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Either chamber of Congress can hold someone in contempt on criminal or civil charges with a simple majority vote if that person refuses to testify, withholds information, or obstructs a congressional inquiry, according to the American Bar Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any criminal charges would forwarded to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, but it\u2019s not obligated to prosecute. In that case, the House can pursue civil enforcement in U.S. district court. Inherent contempt is a separate option when the House or Senate holds its own proceedings and cites someone for contempt.<\/p>\n

Despite the escalation in the lawmakers\u2019 fight with DOJ, inherent contempt stops short of the more severe threat of impeachment, which Khanna had raised on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cImpeachment is a political decision, and is there the support in the House of Representatives? I mean Massie and I aren\u2019t going to just do something for the show of it,\u201d he told CNN.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Inherent #contempt #charges #drafted #fine #Pam #Bondi #Epstein #files #congressmen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The members of Congress who le… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[3570,5175,1394,4911,5174,4910,5176,3256,4885,1415,5173,3253,5177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}