[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 23 (Monday, February 2, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             EPSTEIN FILES

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, finally, on Epstein, the only real 
conclusion we can make about the latest release of the Epstein files is 
this: The DOJ cares more about protecting Donald Trump than it cares 
about protecting Epstein's victims.
  These new releases expose the identity of nearly 100 victims in over 
1,000 instances. This is not mere sloppiness. This is wanton negligence 
that puts the safety of these victims at risk. It is one thing for DOJ 
to miss a couple of redactions here or there--and that is still bad--
but to fail thousands of times to protect people's identities begs the 
question of whether this was intentional.
  And, look, the DOJ's failure to protect the identities of the victims 
is bad enough, but what makes it even more heinous is how far the DOJ 
went to protect Donald Trump during these releases. The DOJ took down 
pages and pages of documents that were full of vulgar accusations 
against the President. And when they got caught, they put the documents 
back up without redacting the information of the victims.
  If DOJ cared half as much about protecting Epstein's victims as they 
cared about shielding Donald Trump, then maybe the public would trust 
them more. But right now, there is zero trust that the DOJ is being on 
the level.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority whip.

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