Burchett says Bondi releasing Epstein grand jury files ‘will pretty much cover everything'
'I applaud the president and Attorney General Bondi for wanting to release the grand jury files,' he said during a Sunday interview on ABC's 'This Week.' 'I believe that will pretty much cover everything.'
Burchett, who last week slammed the findings from the Justice Department's (DOJ) report on Epstein, also warned that 'just because somebody flew on a plane doesn't mean they're a daggum pedophile.'
'I have a lot of wealthy friends, and they fly on people's planes. And their plane will be down, and they'll say, 'Hey, we're going somewhere, and we've got an extra seat, do you want to go?' And they don't even know the person on the plane,' he said. 'So, you know, that's one of the things I worry about too.'
'But I worry about some of those innocent names being out on that too as well,' he added.
When asked whether unsealing the grand jury records is enough for him now, Burchett responded that it's 'a start.'
'I don't think we're ever going to get to the bottom of…all of it, ma'am,' he said, mentioning the assassination of late President John F. Kennedy and the 'magic bullet' theory, a debated theory put forward by the Warren Commission Report in the year after his assassination. That commission concluded that one of the bullets fired at the late president's limousine struck the president and hit Texas Gov. John B. Connally Jr. in multiple places.
Burchett also accused the Biden administration of withholding the Epstein documents.
'I'd warn people too, now we're getting a hold of this stuff,' he said. 'What happened the last four years under the Biden administration?'
Burchett previously suggested the Biden administration may have destroyed Epstein's client list.
When asked again whether he thinks all the files should be released, Burchett clarified he does, but that he is warning not to release files 'that have innocent names on them,' such as people 'who were then children, now adults, that were abused by this dirtbag, Epstein.'
Still, Burchett criticized Bondi's communication at the beginning of the DOJ's release of the files.
'I think her communication with us early on was not as good,' he said. 'I mean, the binder, for instance, that she put out, I was very excited about that. But then I found the contents of it. I think it was her limited knowledge and taking advice from the wrong people, which you do a lot of in Washington.'
Bondi handed several binders of case files titled 'The Epstein Files: Phase 1' to conservative influencers at an event earlier this year and vowed to be transparent with the investigation into Epstein.
Burchett's comments follow Trump's directive last Thursday to Bondi to release the grand jury files related to Epstein. Still, the president remains skeptical that the release of the files will quell the demand for more information on the case.
'It will always be more, more, more,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
Epstein furor upends House for second week in row
The Jeffrey Epstein saga is causing chaos in the House for the second week in a row, as threats of Democrats forcing politically tough votes is prompting House GOP leadership to toss out many of their plans for the week. The trouble started as soon as lawmakers returned to Washington on Monday when the House Rules Committee, which sets up action for bills on the floor, met to tee up votes to rescind Biden-era rules and on an immigration bill. But Democrats, who had forced Republicans on the panel into a number of politically difficult votes on the Epstein matter last week, threatened to do so again. They planned to stage a vote on bringing legislation to the floor that would compel the release of the Epstein files. Rather than face those votes, Republicans are opting to simply not tee up any votes at all, according to multiple members of the panel — leaving the House with no floor business in the days ahead of August recess beyond non-controversial suspension bills, fast-track measures that need two-thirds support to pass. 'Democrats keep putting all these amendments up. They want to make Epstein — and, you know, we're all for transparency, and we're going to do that, but what they want to do is grandstand. They said they'll be there all night, we'll be there all night,' Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the Rules Committee, told reporters. He added that the committee was not expected to return, and the House would only deal with suspension votes. Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, confirmed that the panel would not re-convene for the rest of the week. 'We're done,' McGovern told The Hill. 'Not reporting out a rule, we're done for the night, we're done for the week… There's some issues going on within the Republican conference, I think around the Epstein stuff, that they can't seem to get under control. So we'll do, probably suspensions for the remainder of the week.' It is the second time in as many weeks the so-called Epstein files saga has thwarted GOP leadership's plans for the House floor. Republicans on the Rules Committee last week had tried to address the Epstein matter after being lambasted by the public over rejecting a Democratic amendment, an effort that delayed action on a bill to codify Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to public broadcasting and foreign aid for hours. The GOP members on the panel came up with a non-binding resolution calling for release for more files, and teed it up for floor action. But GOP leadership has no plans to bring the matter for a vote. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said earlier Monday that the House would not vote on the legislation before August recess — which is scheduled to begin after votes on Thursday. Instead, Johnson said he wanted to give the administration time to act on the matter on its own. 'Here's what I would say about the Epstein files: There is no daylight between the House Republicans, the House, and the president on maximum transparency,' Johnson said in the Capitol on Monday. 'He has said that he wants all the credible files related to Epstein to be released. He's asked the attorney general to request the grand jury files of the court. All of that is in process right now.' 'My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing and if further Congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we'll look at that,' he added. 'But I don't think we're at that point right now because we agree with the president.' One source said that holding a floor vote on the non-binding resolution was suggested to leadership as a way to avoid the headaches over votes forced by Democrats, and that was not the favored option by leadership. The dilemma for Republicans came up in a meeting with leadership and other top House leaders on Monday, two sources told The Hill. Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), who sits on the Rules Committee, raised concerns with having to vote on the Democratic-led amendment — which has key differences from the GOP-crafted one — in the panel meeting and instead advocated for voting on the Republican resolution or a different measure for transparency, one of the sources said. A competing Epstein measure from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — one that would, if passed by both chambers and signed by the president, have more teeth — is further complicating the Epstein dynamic. Massie and Khanna have pledged to force a vote on their Epstein-release bill through the discharge petition process, if they can get 218 House members to sign on. If all Democrats in the House and all the Republicans who have already co-sponsored the resolution do so, they can back GOP leadership into a corner. Due to procedural rules, any vote wouldn't take place until at least after the House returns from August recess in September — by which time many Republicans hope the Epstein furor will have died down. But Massie — carrying a binder that read 'The Epstein Files: Phase 2' in reference to the fateful 'Phase 1' binders that Attorney General Pam Bondi distributed to MAGA influencers earlier this year — expects there will still be an appetite for that forced vote. 'This is not going away,' Massie said Monday. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) downplayed the significance of the logjam, saying the House this week can still vote on suspensions and focus on committee meetings and hearings. 'We still have a lot of other work to do,' he told reporters.
CBS News
28 minutes ago
- CBS News
Former engineer pleads guilty to stealing missile tracking blueprints from Southern California company
A former engineer at a Southern California company pleaded guilty to stealing the blueprints of missile tracking systems used by the U.S. military. In his agreement to plead guilty to one count of theft of trade secrets, Chenguang Gong admitted to transferring more than 3,600 files from the Los Angeles-area research and development company where he had briefly worked to his personal storage devices, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29. The Justice Department said the files included blueprints for space-based systems designed to detect nuclear missile launches and to track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The files also included blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S military aircraft to detect incoming missiles. Federal prosecutors said the unnamed company hired Gong as a manager responsible for designing, developing and verifying the sensors in January 2023. He began transferring files from his work laptop to his three personal hard drives on March 30, 2023, and continued until he was fired nearly a month later, according to the DOJ. About 1,800 files were downloaded after he had accepted a job with one of the company's competitors, according to federal prosecutors. The files also included plans for sensors designed to detect "low observable targets," an industry term that includes stealth aircraft, drones and radar-evading cruise missiles. Investigators also claimed that between 2014 and 2022, Gong submitted numerous proposals to "Talent Programs" created by the Chinese government. The Justice Department stated that some of the plans he submitted to the Chinese government included designs from defense contractors that employed him.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
As MAGA world focuses on Epstein, Trump focuses on anything else
During a fusillade of posts on the social network he owns, Trump even released a 3-minute mash-up of clips that would seem more at place on-screen at a sports bar than in a President's official feed: a woman snatching an approaching snake from the grass, a car sliding under a truck barreling along a highway and no fewer than four people doing tricks on motorcycles and jet skis. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up On Monday, Gabbard added another item to the list - announcing the release of hundreds of thousands of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Advertisement The through-line connecting those disparate posts? They have nothing to do with the political problem that has dogged Trump for weeks - the 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein. As the controversy over Epstein, the wealthy financier and sex offender, has refused to dissipate, Trump and those closest to him have tried repeatedly to divert attention to other subjects, with limited success. Republican strategist Alex Conant said the Epstein episode has called into question Trump's ability to evade electoral consequences of actions that would kneecap other politicians. Advertisement 'Nobody turns the page better than Donald Trump,' Conant said. 'His entire first term was constantly changing narratives. We lost track of all the dramas because he's always adding a new one to distract from the previous ones. 'This is different because he's in a real fight with his base. Normally his base helps change the topic by latching on to a new outrage. But now he's in a fight with his base, and the Democrats and the mainstream media are more than happy to fan those flames,' Conant said. The fight started because many of Trump's loyal supporters were angered that the administration was refusing to follow through on promises to release more details about the Epstein case. The politically connected multimillionaire, who died in 2019, has been the subject of years of elaborate conspiracy theories, many of them fanned by people who now hold senior positions in Trump's administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1997. DavidoffEpstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019 and died in jail later that year while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide, though some prominent Trump supporters questioned that and alleged, without evidence, that he had been killed to protect rich and powerful friends who may have also been involved in his abuse of young girls. During an interview on Fox News in March, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she'd be releasing 'truck loads' of new information about Epstein. Instead, the Justice Department released a memo this month saying it had conducted an 'exhaustive review' and found no evidence of an 'incriminating 'client list'' or anything else that warranted public release. Advertisement That set off an apoplectic response from some in Trump's base, which the administration has spent two weeks trying to tamp down. Trump has questioned why his supporters had not moved on to more important topics, even suggesting that continued interest in the conspiracy theories benefited Democrats. 'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bull----,' hook, line, and sinker,' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last week. 'They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.' That and other efforts to change the subject have been so far unsuccessful, experts and observers say. Instead, new attention has focused on Trump's own well-documented friendship with Epstein, especially after a Wall Street Journal article about a salacious drawing Trump allegedly contributed to a 50th birthday present for the financier in 2003. Trump denied the story and has sued the Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch. By insisting that he is the victim of an unfair media attack, he has rallied some of his most prominent supporters around him. But polls show that large majorities of the public believe the government is hiding facts about the Epstein case. As a result, the president whose ascent has been linked to a litany of unproven claims now finds his political power threatened by a conspiracy theory he can't shake. 'Donald Trump is the one who cast himself as the elite who doesn't side with the elites. He's the elite who sides with the people. He's going to drain the swamp,' said Russell Muirhead, a professor of democracy and politics at Dartmouth College and a Democratic state legislator from New Hampshire. Advertisement 'But when he says 'there's nothing to look at here. We're not going to release what the Justice Department has, and forget about that list' … it looks like he's just another elite, corrupt like all the rest and that impression will remain, to some extent, regardless of whether this particular story is at the top of people's attention.' The president has attempted to make some concessions on the issue, including an announcement Thursday shortly after the Wall Street Journal published its story that he had directed the Justice Department to petition the courts to release grand jury testimony related to Epstein. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt answered questions from reporters outside the White House on Monday, July 21. Kevin Dietsch/Getty On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected claims that Trump is paying a political price for his handling of the Epstein case, noting that he enjoys high approval ratings among Republicans. 'The president is the leader and the creator of the Make America Great Again movement. It's his baby that he made and he knows what his supporters want,' she said during an impromptu news conference outside the White House, where nearly a quarter of the questions were about Epstein. 'It's transparency, and he has given them that on all accounts when it comes to everything his administration has done.' Democrats, seeing an opening, have demanded that Epstein records be released and have blasted Republicans' at times conflicting stances on the question. How quickly the public may move on from paying attention to the Epstein case might be more due to organic movement in the news cycle than any effort Trump makes, said Conant, the Republican strategist. Advertisement 'It's hard to keep a story like this alive unless there's fresh oxygen. Part of why it's become such a big story is because Trump himself keeps talking about it,' he said. It's not a coincidence this is happening in the dog days of summer. There's no big legislative fight. There's no national crisis. Fast forward two months and we're going to be facing a government shutdown. Time is on the President's side here.' Jonathan Edwards and Scott Clement contributed to this report.
