‘I’m pretty tech savvy’: Nancy Mace alleges House Epstein doc viewers are being tracked

South Carolina Republican House Rep. Nancy Mace says the Department of Justice (DOJ) is tracking lawmakers’ activities as they review unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files. Meanwhile, Washington State House Democrat Pramila Jayapal also says her viewing activity was surveilled in a moment of bipartisan unity.

Mace told reporters she personally identified tracking mechanisms embedded in the system used to grant members of Congress access to review the documents. Mace said, “I’m pretty tech savvy. I played around with the system. They’re tracking every file that we open. And when we open it, they’re tracking everything.” She added that the tracking was visible “if you know where to look,” but declined to divulge specifics to avoid tipping off the DOJ to conceal the practice.

The controversy surfaced during a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing in which Attorney General Pam Bondi faced questioning over the DOJ’s release and handling of Epstein files, which were opened for in-person review by lawmakers under the terms of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Photographs taken during that hearing showed Bondi holding a notebook featuring a document labeled “Jayapal Pramila Search History,” a compiled list of files that Jayapal had accessed while reviewing the documents.

Jayapal: ‘It’s completely against the separation of powers’

Jayapal, speaking to NPR and in public statements, characterized the tracking as a serious overreach. In a repost of her comments about the incident, she said that the DOJ’s actions were “completely against the separation of powers. We are supposed to be able to, as lawmakers, go in, review the files, take whatever we want from there, not be surveilled and spied on by the Department of Justice.”

She suggested that Bondi’s decision to make the unredacted files available “two days before the hearing” may have allowed DOJ officials to observe what lawmakers were researching in advance of questioning. According to Jayapal’s recounting, she even spoke with Speaker Mike Johnson about what she views as bipartisan concern on this matter.

Bipartisan response

Rep. Jamie Raskin and fellow Democrats blasted the surveillance as “Orwellian.” Raskin has since called for the DOJ Inspector General to investigate. Republican leadership, including House Speaker Johnson, has called any such tracking “inappropriate” if confirmed, though Johnson has also cautioned against premature conclusions.

At the same time, lawmakers have criticized the DOJ for how it implemented the release of millions of Epstein-related records. Some Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed frustration that victims’ identifying information was initially left unredacted, while investigative insights on associates of Epstein were heavily obscured.

In a statement, Raskin added, “DOJ must immediately cease tracking any Members’ searches, open up the Epstein review to senior congressional staff, and publicly release all files—with all the survivors’ information, and only the survivors’ information, properly redacted—as required by federal law.”