From Fox News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that Democrats invoked a century-old law to force President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice and the FBI to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
At a press conference, Schumer said he joined all his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Homeland Security Committee in invoking “a century-old and little-known law known as the Rule of Five.” Under the federal law, Schumer said, “when any five senators on the Homeland Security Committee call on the executive branch, the executive branch must comply.”
Schumer said their request “covers all documents, files, evidence and other materials” in possession of the DOJ and the FBI related to the case of the United States v. Jeffrey Epstein.
“While protecting the victims’ identities can and must be of top importance, the public has a right to know who enabled, knew of, or participated in one of the most heinous sex trafficking operations in history,” Schumer said.
He pointed out that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had promised transparency, but instead delivered “stonewall, evasion, lies.”
“Donald Trump campaigned on releasing the Epstein files. He broke that promise,” Schumer said, repeating a slightly exaggerated version of the facts. Trump said during the campaign that he was open to releasing the files if there was a reason to do so. He said at the time that he was willing to “take a look at” the files and that he “would be inclined to do the Epstein” and had “no problem with it.” But he also expressed concerns that there could be “phony stuff” in the files that should not be made public as it could impact the lives of third parties.
Schumer, who is either misinformed or being deceptive in his representation of Trump’s campaign promises, said the president should “stop hiding from the truth.”
Schumer added, “He should stop hiding from the American people.”
“So today, Senate Democrats took action,” he said. “We’re invoking federal law and using our authority as a check on the executive to compel transparency.”
“It’s not a stunt. It’s not symbolic. It’s a formal exercise of congressional power under federal law. And we expect an answer from DOJ by August the 15th,” he said. “That’s what accountability looks like. This is what oversight looks like. And this is what keeping your promises to the American people look like.”
Addressing Senate Republicans, he said, “If you believe in transparency, if you believe Congress has a role to play in checking the executive, join us. Join us in calling for more transparency on the Epstein files, because once there’s transparency, the truth emerges.”
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