Lawmakers from both parties are clashing over possible repercussions for Department of Justice (DOJ) officials after the department failed to fully disclose documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as mandated by law.

Representatives Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, are spearheading a bipartisan initiative to compel a vote on a bill demanding the release of these files. They are now considering invoking “inherent contempt” against Attorney General Pam Bondi, proposing to levy fines until all documents are made public.

Khanna has taken his stance a step further, indicating that the delayed and incomplete release might even justify impeachment proceedings.

Despite the bill’s near-unanimous support in Congress for releasing the files, legislators may find themselves divided over how forcefully to challenge the DOJ’s actions.

Khanna emphasized that the delay in releasing these documents has exacerbated frustration among Epstein’s victims and supporters of the MAGA movement, suggesting that this could rally support for imposing significant penalties.

“Impeachment is a political decision, and is there the support in the House of Representatives? I mean, Massie and I aren’t going to just do something for the show of it, but my sense is, just looking at the initial reactions from people in MAGA, from survivors, is that this release is going to cause as much grief for Pam Bondi as the earlier releases. Susie Wiles said she whiffed. This isn’t building more trust,” Khanna told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday.

The law passed by Congress allows for redactions to protect victims, but it otherwise gave the DOJ 30 days to publicly share all unclassified records related to Epstein. That set the deadline for Dec. 19 — last Friday. 

Even before DOJ released a partial tranche, however, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche set off a firestorm by announcing the department wouldn’t be sharing the full files, telling Fox News that the volume of information was simply too large for attorneys to redact victim identities within the 30-day deadline.

Blanche said the department would release “several hundred thousand” documents on Friday, “and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”

That pushed Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Judiciary Committee, respectively, to say they would be “examining all legal options” to force the DOJ to comply with the law.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday introduced legislation that would direct the Senate to “initiate legal action” against DOJ for failing to meet the deadline.

But even among congressional Democrats and a few Republicans who have highlighted the Epstein files, there have been questions about how far to go.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) called both impeachment and inherent contempt conversations “premature” during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“We have tools in appropriations bills and other tools to force compliance if somebody is dragging their feet, and I’d rather focus on those tools, then get into discussions about contempt and impeachment,” he added.

When asked about the intermediate step of seeking inherent contempt for Bondi, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) sidestepped whether she would back the move even as she hammered DOJ.

“Time is up. They signed this law. They knew where fines were and they’ve missed them. And we have two concerns here. One is that we need justice for the survivors. And second is we need this White House and the Department of Justice to comply with the law,” Clark said during an appearance on CNN.

“So we are going to consider all options and what we can do as members of Congress to make sure that they release these full documents. The time for excuses has ended.”

Others, however, have been more forceful.

Progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for Bondi to resign after CBS News reported that a 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY” was entirely redacted. The outlet reported that three other consecutive documents totaling 255 pages were also entirely redacted.

“Now the coverup is out in the open. This is far from over,” she wrote on the social platform X last Friday. “Everyone involved will have to answer for this. Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, whole admin. Protecting a bunch of rapists and pedophiles because they have money, power, and connections. Bondi should resign tonight.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will investigate why DOJ failed to comply with the deadline.

“Yesterday could have been a win for survivors, accountability, and transparency to the public. It wasn’t. After mishandling the Epstein files all year, the Trump Administration is now violating federal law to protect the rich and powerful,” he said in a Saturday statement.

“It took an act of Congress to force Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino to even consider providing justices. They had a choice: survivors or Donald Trump. They chose the latter. Senate Judiciary Democrats will investigate this violation of law and make sure the American people know about it.”

President Trump has repeatedly insisted he has “nothing to hide” regarding the Epstein files, dismissing calls for their release as a Democratic “hoax.” However, the Department of Justice faced backlash over the weekend after at least 15 photos included in the files, including a photo that contained images of Trump, disappeared from the department’s website. The photograph was later restored.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who’s previously advocated for clarity and transparency on the Epstein files, told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo last week that the Department of Justice is a “multileveled onion” and argued that “you’re never going to get to the bottom of this thing, Chris, it’s just like the Kennedy assassination.”

“I wish people would understand, though, there’s a group of people out there that are in this, involved in this, that don’t want their names released, and there is some protection within the writing of the law, but you’re correct in every one of your assumptions where you said that, you know, who goes after the Justice Department when they screw up,” he said.

“I mean, it’s like no, nobody goes after the Justice Department. And I think that’s inherently what’s wrong with this — the way they passed this thing and what they passed. They should have had a clause in there for punishment for refusing to do that. Cutting off funds. Doing something. Congress is the checkbook. We should have done that. Cut off their freaking money,” he added.

The pushback isn’t only coming from within Congress. A group of Epstein survivors on Monday penned an open letter blasting DOJ for “clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law” and encouraging congressional oversight.

“This law, enacted by a nearly unanimous vote in the House and unanimously in the Senate, and signed by the President, was clear. It afforded no permission for delayed disclosure,” a group of 18 survivors wrote in the letter.

“We call upon Congress to stand up for the rule of law. We urge immediate congressional oversight, including hearings, formal demands for compliance, and legal action, to ensure the Department of Justice fulfills its legal obligations.”

Blanche, also appearing on “Meet The Press” on Sunday, said he does not take the impeachment threats or criticism seriously, defending the delay as part of the need to protect victims.

He said the need to “comply with other laws like redacting information, that very much trumps” the need to meet the deadline in the statute.

Blanche also said the photos that were removed were done so amid questions over whether they contained sensitive information about victims.

“When we hear from victims’ rights groups about this type of photograph, we pull it down and investigate,” he said.

Though he said additional documents would be released in the coming weeks, Blanche did not give a more specific timeline for when all the files would be released, nor did he seem concerned about potential action against the department.

“Bring it on,” he said of impeachment threats.

“We are doing everything we’re supposed to be doing to comply with the statute. And Congressman Massie and these other congressmen that are coming out speaking negatively about [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel and the attorney general have no idea what they’re talking about. They know the work that we’re going through. They know what we’re doing to protect victims. I mean, just think about what we’re doing. You’re talking about a million or so pages of documents. Virtually all of them contain victim information,” Blanche said.

With lawmakers out for their two-week recess, any potential action against the Justice Department will likely be delayed until early next year. 

But the issue is unlikely to go away, and questions about what has yet to be released are sure to swirl once Congress returns in January.

Garcia made an open call for whistleblowers, urging anyone with information about the files to come forward.

“We know there are hundreds of good Americans at the FBI and DOJ who also want to see justice for Epstein’s victims and survivors,” he wrote on X over the weekend, with the link to the tip line for the Oversight Committee.

“To anyone who worked hard on the files and is now seeing their work being hidden by their own DOJ, there are whistleblower protections.”