This is why you should pay attention to the news that Senate Democrats are now exercising an obscure, rarely used law to try to force transparency on the so-called Epstein files.
Under a section of federal law commonly referred to in the Senate as the “rule of five,” government agencies are required to provide relevant information if any five members of that committee, which is the chamber’s chief oversight panel, request it.
This is a good move. Let’s start with the law in question: It states that if “any five members” of that Senate committee request “any information” that is “related to any matter within the jurisdiction of that committee,” the relevant executive agency “shall” submit it. There’s a companion provision for the House.
Critically, though, the statute that Senate Democrats are now invoking, Vladeck says, was originally designed to “ensure that the minority” in Congress “has real access to what executive agencies are doing.” As you may have noticed, this is a particularly urgent need right now: Democratic efforts at oversight have been entirely blocked by the GOP majority, which is devoted to protecting Trump at all costs.
Enter this new effort by Senate Democrats. There are reasons to think it might do some good.
Democrats seem to agree, as Democratic leader Chuck Schumer appeared to confirm at a press conference on Wednesday. “This is the law,” Schumer said. “This can be challenged in the courts.”
Here there’s reason for (very) cautious optimism. House Democrats got pretty far the last time this was attempted. They invoked the statute in 2017 to try to force the first Trump administration to divulge information related to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which raised many ethical issues.
Now this same question could be considered by the high court, only this time on the Epstein case. Vladeck, who was involved in the previous litigation, says he thinks this is likely, precisely because the courts already tilled so much relevant ground in that litigation. Appeals courts will rule the same way this time, Vladeck predicted, with the result that “this case” or one like it “will have to get to the Supreme Court.”
“The courts can screw around with this, but it would clearly be saying, ‘We don’t care about the law,’” Ornstein told me. “Every time we can shed light on the unwillingness of John Roberts and the Supreme Court to do anything about Trump’s lawlessness, the better off we are, even if it’s far from ideal.”
The failure of accountability is everywhere in the Epstein matter. After campaigning on a promise of transparency, the president—with the active assistance of most of the GOP—is thwarting disclosure of untold damning information involving a ring of child predators, information that quite possibly involves some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, including the president himself.
It’s easy to give up on congressional oversight. But Democrats have options for getting very creative. No matter how hopeless it might seem at times, we shouldn’t lose sight of that, lest we do Trump’s (very) dirty work for him. Democrats: Stay on this, and don’t let up.
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