'Sweep up everyone': Lawmakers say DOJ spying part of much larger — and darker — scheme

WASHINGTON — More lawmakers are coming out against Attorney General Pam Bondi's secret surveillance of members of Congress to counter their investigation into how the Justice Department is handling the release of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files.

In an exclusive conversation with Raw Story, several expressed discomfort with having their work spied on — and warned it's part of something much larger and darker.

"It's clear they're doing it," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. "You can tell when you go over there, I mean you're on a floor with 15 empty offices, and then you go in and you're surrounded by people ... it's so obvious."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) concurred and said it was a failed attempt to scare lawmakers into backing off oversight.

"I think it's weird," she said. "Their M.O. is intimidation, and when you're not intimidated, they've got nothing else."

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), however, told Raw Story she thinks this goes deeper.

"It's not the only place" such surveillance is happening, said Scanlon, referencing a recent DOJ memo that orders anti-Trump protesters to be investigated as domestic terrorists. They are trying to create a "list of entities" to accuse of "left-wing terrorism," Scanlon said, including for such innocuous reasons as opposing "traditional family values."

The goal here is clear, she said: "Sweep up everyone who's the president's enemy."

"We're seeing this whole-of-government approach to attacking people this White House views as enemies, whether it's arresting members of Congress, trying to have them indicted, going after attorneys general, going after FTC chairs," said Scanlon. "Anything they can do to turn the government on people that the White House wants to silence. It's hugely dangerous."