Fetterman shrugs off Epstein scandal as rest of Dems make shock move
WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer confused the heck out of Capitol Hill this week when he deployed a little-known procedural maneuver — the "Rule of Five" — to try and force the Trump Justice Department to release the "Epstein files."
“Never heard it before,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) told Raw Story.
“No, never heard of it,” two-term Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) told Raw Story.
“I gotta go,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsay Graham (R-SC) responded to Raw Story’s inquiry.
All the confusion and consternation stems from Schumer invoking the arcane 1928 "Rule of Five," which — on paper, at least — enables any five members of a congressional committee to band together and demand executive branch documents within their jurisdiction. No matter their party.
While Democratic leaders feel bullish on the issue, some Democrats are urging caution — in part because the party didn’t touch the topic during former President Joe Biden’s four years in the White House — despite Schumer’s latest effort to dislodge the files on the former billionaire financier who allegedly trafficked and abused minors.
"It's not a stunt”
Heads turned on Wednesday after Schumer announced their new strategy to force the Department of Justice to release most of the files the government has on Epstein.
Many Republicans initially laughed off the camera-loving New York Democrat as whispers of the minority leader’s gambit to deploy the little-known rule spread across the Capitol grounds.
But Schumer, flanked by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee — all of whom formally signed off on the effort — brushed aside charges of politics as usual.
"It's not a stunt. It's not symbolic. It's a formal exercise of congressional power under federal law," Schumer told members of the congressional press corps Wednesday. “And we expect an answer from DOJ by August the 15th. That's what accountability looks like. This is what oversight looks like. And this is what keeping your promises to the American people look like."
Stunt or not, this latest effort by Schumer puts him in league with at least one of the nation’s most far-right senators.
“Hey, what do you make of this ‘Rule of Five’ that Schumer and Dems are deploying?” Raw Story asked the former chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the same committee trying to force the disclosure of the Epstein docs.
“I used it,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story. “I never got the information.”
“So are you writing this effort off?” Raw Story asked.
“Well, they can try,” Johnson said. “We tried it a number of times. It’s very difficult to do. You gotta take that to the committee. When you’re in the minority, you really can’t do it.”
That doesn’t mean Democrats aren’t following suit.
The Epstein investigation — or "coverup," depending on who you ask — was dismissed by many Senate Republicans just a couple weeks ago. Not anymore.
After rank-and-file House Republicans forced Speaker Mike Johnson to address the topic — which he did by recessing his chamber early ahead of their August recess purely to avoid debating Epstein — Senate Republicans took note.
“What do you think should happen with the Epstein investigation?” Raw Story asked.
“Well, isn’t it kind of materializing in the House of Representatives right now?” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — who as the president pro tempore of the Senate, is third in line for the presidency, thus always flanked by security — told Raw Story.
“Yeah? Well, they’re on recess now,” Raw Story pressed. “But you’re watching that?”
Grassley said nothing as he, his security detail and aides entered a Senators-only elevator.
Even though many Senate Republicans still want to avoid the scandal at all costs, like Grassley, many are now quietly pressuring the Trump administration to judiciously address this homegrown scandal.
“I think the administration’s gotta be transparent,” Ron Johnson said.
“It’s very difficult to do”
It’s not just Republican heads that were turning this week.
“Did you know about this ‘Rule of Five’ before yesterday?” Raw Story asked a veteran Democrat.
“I don’t know if I did,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Raw Story.
Even though many have never heard of the rule, Schumer’s procedural gambit has many on the left giddy as they continue ramping up pressure on the administration, but Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) cautions his fellow Democrats to keep the bipartisan scandal in context.
“I don’t really spend any time thinking about this,” Fetterman told Raw Story. “I don’t get any kind of outreach on it or whatever.”
While many Democrats have been feeling the wind at their backs for the first time in this second Trump administration, Fetterman cautions his colleagues against spiking the football.
“If they release it, fine, but it’s a strange argument when we were in absolute control for four years, we didn't release it or say anything with it,” Fetterman said. “So I’m just kind of like, ‘okay, release it. That’s fine. I don’t care.’ But I don’t think it’s a Democratic, another ‘get rich quick’ kind of scheme. You know, it’s like Russiagate or the ‘pee tape.’”
Unlike the fabled "pee tape," Epstein lived, breathed and, allegedly, abused. A lot.
These days, even Republicans who’ve avoided Epstein like the plague he became are now tuned in.
“People are interested,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Raw Story.
When Scott was governor, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi served as Florida's top law enforcement officer, so he’s in her corner, lonely though it may be.
“I trust Pam Bondi,” Scott said. “I think Pam feels like she’s doing the right thing. She’s protecting victims. She doesn’t want to release pornography. When I’ve talked to her, she’s doing the right thing.”
If Bondi’s doing the right thing, then someone else in the administration is the culprit, according to many of the president’s supporters who are increasingly frustrated with taking campaign pledges as ironclad promises.
“Something’s not on the level”
Bondi may have powerful Senate allies, but it’s been lonely for the 59-year-old lawyer of late.
The attorney general’s chorus of critics has grown since her claim to have the "Epstein list" on her desk unraveled — or disappeared, as many members of the MAGA wing of the GOP believe — in real-time.
While the Epstein affair was never a central issue for Democrats, the party’s rank-and-file are now engaged. And now that they are, they say things just aren’t adding up with this mysterious scandal.
“You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that something’s not on the level,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told Raw Story.
With the Trump administration seeming to stall — even as reports swirl about Trump’s relationship with the former financier — Democrats are piling on, even as that means angling to co-opt this issue many dismissed as a conspiracy mere weeks ago.
“They don’t want to release information that they’ve been demanding. It’s a Republican issue. It’s gotten some lift because Republicans are furious that the president is not being transparent,” Welch said. “There’s a lot of internal pressure. The Republican base wants this information. Might be they’re entitled to it. We all are."
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks to reporters as he walks in the Capitol this week. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura