Burchett says Bondi releasing Epstein grand jury files ‘will pretty much cover everything'

The Hill

6 days ago

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) applauded President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi for their plans to release relevant grand jury testimony in the case of sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after nationwide pressure to produce more information related to the case, saying the grand jury files 'will pretty much cover everything.'
'I applaud the president and Attorney General Bondi for wanting to release the grand jury files,' he said during a Sunday interview on ABC's 'This Week.' 'I believe that will pretty much cover everything.'
Burchett, who last week slammed the findings from the Justice Department's (DOJ) report on Epstein, also warned that 'just because somebody flew on a plane doesn't mean they're a daggum pedophile.'
'I have a lot of wealthy friends, and they fly on people's planes. And their plane will be down, and they'll say, 'Hey, we're going somewhere, and we've got an extra seat, do you want to go?' And they don't even know the person on the plane,' he said. 'So, you know, that's one of the things I worry about too.'
'But I worry about some of those innocent names being out on that too as well,' he added.
When asked whether unsealing the grand jury records is enough for him now, Burchett responded that it's 'a start.'
'I don't think we're ever going to get to the bottom of…all of it, ma'am,' he said, mentioning the assassination of late President John F. Kennedy and the 'magic bullet' theory, a debated theory put forward by the Warren Commission Report in the year after his assassination. That commission concluded that one of the bullets fired at the late president's limousine struck the president and hit Texas Gov. John B. Connally Jr. in multiple places.
Burchett also accused the Biden administration of withholding the Epstein documents.
'I'd warn people too, now we're getting a hold of this stuff,' he said. 'What happened the last four years under the Biden administration?'
Burchett previously suggested the Biden administration may have destroyed Epstein's client list.
When asked again whether he thinks all the files should be released, Burchett clarified he does, but that he is warning not to release files 'that have innocent names on them,' such as people 'who were then children, now adults, that were abused by this dirtbag, Epstein.'
Still, Burchett criticized Bondi's communication at the beginning of the DOJ's release of the files.
'I think her communication with us early on was not as good,' he said. 'I mean, the binder, for instance, that she put out, I was very excited about that. But then I found the contents of it. I think it was her limited knowledge and taking advice from the wrong people, which you do a lot of in Washington.'
Bondi handed several binders of case files titled 'The Epstein Files: Phase 1' to conservative influencers at an event earlier this year and vowed to be transparent with the investigation into Epstein.
Burchett's comments follow Trump's directive last Thursday to Bondi to release the grand jury files related to Epstein. Still, the president remains skeptical that the release of the files will quell the demand for more information on the case.
'It will always be more, more, more,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.