As the FBI swarmed the home of former Donald Trump adviser turned fierce critic John Bolton on Friday, the Justice Department was preparing to turn over the first Jeffrey Epstein files.
The Trump administration had been dragging its feet on releasing files on the convicted sex offender for months despite MAGA outrage.
But according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the department was to begin turning over documents to the committee on Friday after receiving a subpoena from Congress.
It is expected that the committee will release the files to the public but only after reviewing them to make redactions.
Some members of Congress from both parties have been pushing for the Epstein files repeatedly. The motion for the subpoena to obtain the files passed in an oversight subcommittee with bipartisan support at the last minute before the House left on August recess amid mounting pressure on GOP leadership for more information.
“It looks political,” said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, reacting to the Bolton raid on CNN Friday. “It looks like it’s also an attempt to distract from the other big news of the day, which is the first production of the Epstein files that’s required by subpoena from the oversight committee on which I sit.
“They want to change the conversation repeatedly,” Krishnamoorthi claimed. “This is going to happen every day because they don’t want people talking about the Epstein files or about their mismanagement of the economy.”
The same day those first files were set to be delivered on Capitol Hill, the FBI carried out the search of Bolton’s Maryland home as part of a national security investigation.
“NO ONE is above the law…@FBI agents on mission,” FBI Director Kash Patel, a longtime close Trump ally, wrote on X Friday morning. He did not specify what he was referring to.
Patel himself once floated conspiracy theories about the Epstein case and questioned the narrative about the convicted sex offender’s death after Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
But the Justice Department and FBI under him revealed in a memo last month that there was no client list, reiterated the findings that Epstein killed himself and said they did not plan to release further information. Since then, Patel has been notably quiet about the case.
Democrats had criticized the Justice Department for handing files over in tranches despite officials publicly stating the documents had all been turned over to Attorney General Pam Bondi for review before their release in February, before the Trump administration backtracked.
“Today is the first day that the DOJ has been required to comply with the subpoena,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Krishnamoorthi was not the only one suggesting the timing of the Bolton raid was suspect. Trump critics across social media claimed it was a distraction.
Bolton last served in government in 2019 when he worked for the first Trump administration as the president’s National Security Adviser before Trump fired him.
The president has since repeatedly attacked Bolton, who has become a fierce critic of Trump during numerous TV appearances.
During the first Trump administration, the president threatened to lock Bolton up after he published a book in 2020. The book included information that was initially cleared for publication by career White House officials, but the president has attempted to overturn it.
The post Patel Ordered Bolton FBI ‘Distraction’ Raid on Epstein Files Release Day appeared first on The Daily Beast.
