The evidence is mounting that President Donald Trump's DOJ spied on members of Congress to determine how they were going to interrogate Attorney General Pam Bondi on the Jeffrey Epstein case files, MS NOW justice correspondent Ken Dilanian told Mika Brzezinski on "Morning Joe" Thursday — and it could blow up into a massive scandal.
"Ken, I'm interested insomething specific that we wecould see from one camera angleyesterday, and it looked likethe attorney general had likethe search history of thelawmaker that she was talkingwith up," said Brzezinski. "And I don't know ifthat's her search or whosesearch history it is. Whatreporting do you have on that?What's going on there?"
"Mika, I'm glad you broughtthis up, because in any othertime, in any otheradministration, this would be amassive scandal that wouldconsume acres of newsprint andwe'd be talking about it everyday," said Dilanian. "There was a binder thatshowed that they had she hadthe search history ofCongresswoman Jayapal, thesearch history when, remember,members of Congress got to viewunredacted copies of theEpstein files, and presumablythey did so on a JusticeDepartment system. So the Justice Department had accessto what they saw, and they usedthat as opposition research,essentially to try to embarrassthe congresswoman."
"And that, bythe way, that's a — that's anenormous thing," Dilanian continued. "Joe knows this.He was a member of Congress. Imean, remember when DianneFeinstein accused the CIA, credibly, of spying on her intheir oversight effort on theCIA torture question when astaffer was inside a CIA SCIF going through files? That was amajor deal."
"And just thinkabout what the Republicansenators have been saying aboutJack Smith obtaining their call records," he added. "So this is a really,they — according to this, theywere spying on these members ofCongress and using thisinformation against them. Andeven the Speaker of the House,when he was asked about this,he kind of didn't want toengage, but he said if that was,if that happened, that wasinappropriate."
"I mean, this isa huge deal," Dilanian conculded. "This is, this is aline cross. Members of Congressdo not do not like it when theyperceive that the executivebranch is is poaching on theirprerogatives, is using their own information against them,is essentially spying on them.And that looks like that's whathappened here, guys."