{"id":46707,"date":"2026-02-15T11:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46707"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:21:03","slug":"theres-a-bunch-of-sick-fcks-lawmakers-in-both-parties-stunned-and-disgusted-after-viewing-unredacted-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/theres-a-bunch-of-sick-fcks-lawmakers-in-both-parties-stunned-and-disgusted-after-viewing-unredacted-epstein-files\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There\u2019s a Bunch of Sick F*cks\u2019: Lawmakers in Both Parties Stunned and Disgusted After Viewing Unredacted Epstein Files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/senate-holds-votes-for-cabinet-nominees-tulsi-gabbard-and-robert-f-kennedy-jr.jpg?id=64084353&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=0%2C834%2C0%2C835\" alt=\"Senate Holds Votes For Cabinet Nominees Tulsi Gabbard And Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>US Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) is seen at the Senate Chambers on February 12, 2025, in Washington, DC.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Photo by Kayla Bartkowski\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cInitially my reaction to all this was, I don\u2019t care, I don\u2019t know what the big deal is,\u201d the Trump-supporting Sen. Cynthia Lummis said. \u201cBut now I see what the big deal is.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Feb 10, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Members of Congress were given a chance to scour unredacted versions of the Department of Justice\u2019s files on Jeffrey Epstein for the first time on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are more than 3 million pages&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/massie-nuclear-epstein-files\">available<\/a>&nbsp;for lawmakers to comb through following their release to the public with heavy redactions. Meanwhile, despite a law requiring all the files to be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/epstein-files-deadline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">released<\/a>&nbsp;in December, the DOJ is still sitting on another 3 million pages that have yet to be published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RECOMMENDED&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/doj-epstein\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/pam-bondi-attends-confirmation-hearing-to-be-attorney-general.jpg?id=63696108&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=833%2C0%2C833%2C0\" alt=\"Pam Bondi Attends Confirmation Hearing To Be Attorney General\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/doj-epstein\">Calls to Impeach Bondi Mount After Nude Photos of Possible Victims Released in Epstein Files<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/massie-nuclear-epstein-files\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/house-lawmakers-take-up-spending-package-passed-by-senate.jpg?id=64070391&amp;width=1200&amp;height=1200&amp;quality=70&amp;coordinates=301%2C0%2C301%2C0\" alt=\"House Lawmakers Take Up Spending Package Passed By Senate\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/massie-nuclear-epstein-files\">Massie Threatens to Go \u2018Nuclear\u2019 and Reveal Epstein Client Names If Bondi Won\u2019t Unredact Them<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Lawmakers have so far only scratched the surface of the information available. But what they\u2019ve seen after just one day has even some of President Donald Trump\u2019s biggest defenders reevaluating their dismissal of the Epstein scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cInitially, my reaction to all this was, I don\u2019t care, I don\u2019t know what the big deal is,\u201d Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.)\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RonFilipkowski\/status\/2020999868680974807\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a>\u00a0independent journalist Pablo Manr\u00edquez on Monday. \u201cBut now I see what the big deal is and it was worth investigating. The members of Congress who were pushing this were not wrong!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">GOP Sen Lummis says she\u2019s changed her mind after new Epstein revelations today: \u201cInitially my reaction to all this was, I don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t see what the big deal is. But now I see what the big deal is. The members of Congress who were pushing this were not wrong!\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PabloReports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PabloReports<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aHBx36oguw\">pic.twitter.com\/aHBx36oguw<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RonFilipkowski\/status\/2020999868680974807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 9, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Rep.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/ro-khanna\">Ro Khanna<\/a>&nbsp;(D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who have led the charge in Congress for the files to be released, said on Monday that six individuals who were \u201clikely incriminated\u201d in Epstein\u2019s crimes had their identities blacked out by the DOJ in the files that were released publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn a couple of hours, we found six men whose names have been redacted, who are implicated in the way that the files are presented,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/5730626-massie-khanna-unredacted-epstein-files\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Massie told<\/a>&nbsp;reporters outside the DOJ office where lawmakers viewed the files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They did not initially specify the individuals\u2019 names, but Massie said at least one was a US citizen and some were \u201chigh\u2011up\u201d foreign officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Massie later&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2026\/02\/10\/epstein-files-suspects-redacted-documents\/88603065007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a>&nbsp;that one of the men on this list was Les Wexner, the ex-CEO of L Brands, which owns Victoria\u2019s Secret. Wexner appears in the files thousands of times and was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/25\/business\/jeffrey-epstein-wexner-victorias-secret.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">infamously<\/a>&nbsp;one of Epstein\u2019s most intimate financial clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After Massie questioned why Wexner\u2019s name was blacked out, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced it had been unredacted and said the DOJ was \u201chiding nothing.\u201d The other five names remained redacted as of Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/fbi\">FBI<\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/nation\/epstein-client-list-doesnt-exist-doj-says-walking-back-theory-bondi-promoted\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">closed<\/a>&nbsp;its investigation into Epstein in July, concluding that while the financier himself abused several underage girls, along with his partner Ghislane Maxwell\u2014who is currently serving 20 years in prison\u2014he was not running a sex-trafficking ring that included other powerful figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnnieGrayerCNN\/status\/2020984321688076786\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>&nbsp;the files he and other lawmakers reviewed yesterday told a much different story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s disgusting,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are lots of names, lots of co-conspirators, and they\u2019re trafficking girls all across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) put it more succinctly when a&nbsp;<em>Drop Site News&nbsp;<\/em>reporter caught her on the way back from the DOJ office and asked what she learned from viewing the files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of sick fucks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/i\/status\/2021015709359247659\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lawmakers also said the documents contradicted Trump\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/trump-says-epstein-stole-young-women-from-mar-a-lago-spa-including-virginia-giuffre\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">claims<\/a>&nbsp;that he booted Epstein from membership at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and disassociated from him in the early 2000s because the predator was poaching young female&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/workers\">workers<\/a>&nbsp;from the resort. Trump has said that one of them was the late&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/virginia\">Virginia<\/a>&nbsp;Giuffre, then a 17-year-old locker room employee, who\u2019d go on to become one of Epstein\u2019s victims and most prominent accusers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Rep.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/jamie-raskin\">Jamie Raskin<\/a>&nbsp;(D-Md.), \u201cfor some indeterminate, inscrutable reason,\u201d the DOJ&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7373333\/epstein-files-redactions-massie-khanna-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concealed<\/a>&nbsp;a summary of statements allegedly made by Trump, provided by Epstein\u2019s lawyers, in which the president said he never asked Epstein to leave the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Balint&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DropSiteNews\/status\/2021015709359247659\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed<\/a>&nbsp;she saw the same document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne [document] was related to whether or not Trump had ever kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, as he claimed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not true. It\u2019s a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/epstein-files-released\">law passed<\/a>&nbsp;in November requiring the files\u2019 release mandates that victims of Epstein\u2019s abuse have their&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/privacy\">privacy<\/a>&nbsp;protected, but forbids the DOJ from redacting information to protect prominent individuals, including government officials, from embarrassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe broader issue is why so many of the files they\u2019re getting are redacted in the first place,\u201d Khanna said. \u201cWhat Americans want to know is who the rich and powerful people are who went to [Epstein\u2019s] island? Did they rape underage girls? Did they know that underage girls were being paraded around?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Massie and Khanna said they were disappointed to find that many of the files that were supposed to be available were still heavily redacted. Massie lamented that the DOJ had not yet provided access to the FBI\u2019s 302 forms, which contain official summaries of interviews with witnesses and victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raskin&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/02\/09\/politics\/unredacted-epstein-files-doj-congress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said viewing<\/a>&nbsp;the files affirmed many of the concerns about the DOJ \u201cover-redacting\u201d files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t want there to be a cover-up, and yet, what I saw today was that there were lots of examples of people\u2019s names being redacted when they were not victims,\u201d Raskin&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/02\/09\/politics\/unredacted-epstein-files-doj-congress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told&nbsp;<em>CNN<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThere are thousands and thousands of pages replete with redactions. There are entire pages in memos where you can\u2019t see anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lawmakers were given permission to view the files in a letter sent by the DOJ on Friday, following mounting criticism about the extensive number of redactions in the public release. They are required to sift through the files in a tightly-secured DOJ office and are barred from making copies available to the public, though they are allowed to take notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raskin said that the office contains only four computers, making the process of sorting through more than 3 million files agonizingly slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWorking 40 hours a week on nothing else but this, it would take more than seven years for the 217 members who signed the House discharge petition to read just the documents they\u2019ve decided to release,\u201d he&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reels\/DUjmfMYDKBP\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a>&nbsp;in a post on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/social-media\">social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attorney General&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/pam-bondi\">Pam Bondi<\/a>&nbsp;is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee about the handling of the files on Wednesday. Massie&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7373333\/epstein-files-redactions-massie-khanna-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;he plans to grill her about why so many potential co-conspirators had their names redacted in the public release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI would like to give the DOJ a chance to say they made a mistake and over\u2011redacted and let them unredact those men\u2019s names,\u201d he said. That would probably be the best way to do it.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blanche has responded to the criticism on social media,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cn5gzepnw4lo\" target=\"_blank\">saying<\/a>, \u201cThe DOJ is committed to transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Khanna: &quot;Donald Trump had the FBI scrub those files in March. And the documents we saw already had the redactions of the FBI from March. So we still have not seen the vast majority of documents unredacted that have the survivor statements of the rich and powerful men who\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iiue4C75FW\">pic.twitter.com\/iiue4C75FW<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atrupar\/status\/2021210936246194330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 10, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Khanna, who appeared on&nbsp;<em>MS NOW\u2019s&nbsp;<\/em>\u201cMorning Joe\u201d Tuesday morning, said that based on what he saw in the public release, the opposite is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0had the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/fbi\">FBI<\/a>\u00a0scrub those files in March,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the documents we saw already had the redactions of the FBI from March. So we still have not seen the vast majority of documents unredacted that have the survivor statements of the rich and powerful men who committed these crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) is seen at the Senate Chambers on February 12, 2025, in Washington, DC.&nbsp; (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski\/Getty Images) \u201cInitially my reaction to all this was, I don\u2019t care, I don\u2019t know what the big deal is,\u201d the Trump-supporting Sen. Cynthia Lummis said. \u201cBut now I&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/theres-a-bunch-of-sick-fcks-lawmakers-in-both-parties-stunned-and-disgusted-after-viewing-unredacted-epstein-files\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46707"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46708,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46707\/revisions\/46708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}