After President Donald Trump instructed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of grand jury evidence pertaining to the late child predator Jeffrey Epstein — a move Trump made to counter the outrage over the DOJ’s decision not to release any more of the “Epstein Files” — Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) was asked “What do you make of Donald Trump saying let’s put out some grand jury transcripts that Pam Bondi decides are pertinent?”
Whitehouse, an attorney and former federal prosecutor who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Trump’s move insufficient to achieve anything like transparency on Epstein.
The Senator noted that even if Bondi is successful in getting the court to release the grand jury evidence, the materials in the grand jury cache will fall well short of the representing the government’s comprehensive knowledge of the Epstein case.
Whitehouse also asserted that the insufficient information would be further compromised by Bondi’s unchecked discretionary power over what is ultimately made public.
More on this: https://t.co/83Kk9SM2D5 pic.twitter.com/Spcaiipw86
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 20, 2025
“It is exceedingly rare,” said Whitehouse, “for what the grand jury evidence is in a case to be anything but a small fraction of what the full file is. And then you put in weasel words like ‘pertinent’ and all of a sudden there’s Pam Bondi able to make all sorts of decisions about what people don’t get to see.”
[Bondi’s request included text saying any release would be “subject to appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.”]
Whitehouse, an unrelenting Trump critic who also routinely disparages the Supreme Court, says in the video below that Trump is trying hard now “to get out from under what his own administration has been conceding for months was a big reveal. And when there was no big reveal I think people were justifiably concerned. It’s a helluva 180 to go from ‘I’ve got the Epstein file on my desk, we’re about to do the big reveal’ to ‘Sorry folks, nothing to see here.'”
Need to find out if something’s true? Just see if Donald Trump has called it a “hoax.” pic.twitter.com/9mmQkd4Kl1
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 18, 2025
The public desire for full transparency from the administration on the “Epstein Files” is palpable, polling strongly among both Republicans and Democrats. It is notably important to some of Trump’s strongest supporters and MAGA influencers.
MAGA-aligned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) explained her own position on the issue by also castigating the administration for what Whitehouse calls its “180.”
Greene said: “If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People. If not. The base will turn and there’s no going back.”
