U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the tarmac at Morristown Airport, as he departs for Washington, in Morristown, New Jersey, U.S., July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) took to the Senate floor on Thursday, where he confessed that he wants to give the president "cover" on Jeffrey Epstein.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) submitted a list of demands that Democrats want for the release of files related to the Epstein investigation.
"The Committee demands that the Department of Justice produce the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein and his associates within 30 calendar days," the demands list says, according to an MSNBC report.
Mullin, however, opposes the release of all documents as previously promised by several officials in President Donald Trump's administration.
Citing "boundaries between the separation of power" between the executive and legislative branches, Mullin said that his resolution would call on the other government branch, the judiciary, to release the grand jury documents. It does not mandate the release.
"What my colleague's resolution does is truly trying to tell the FBI and the DOJ how they can proceed in doing their job and how they can actually present the information," said Mullin. Instead, his resolution would do that with the judges who presided over the grand jury.
Mullin believes that Democrats want to run the release of the documents through Congress and that it would end in partisan politics.
"Well, I'm sure Congress has never once played politics with any information. I'm sure that this investigation will be handled like many of the other investigations have been handled in this administration, like Democrats have done over the last eight years. I'm sure it will be handled like every other thing, like going after the baseless impeachments or the baseless special counsels, or the unbelievable amount of charges they tried to file against the president. I'm sure this will be handled the exact same way," argued Mullin.
"What we're simply wanting to do here is give them cover," Mullin said of those in the Trump administration. "So, if my colleague from Arizona actually wants transparency, then he would drop his objection to my resolution and just simply have mine go through and we can move forward with the transparency that maybe both of us actually want. Therefore, I object to combining them."
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino both pledged to release the files upon taking office. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that she had the documents "on my desk," and was reviewing them. She has already released volume one of the documents to far-right influencers.
See the moment in the video below.