Republicans fume as 'higher up' squashes probe into Trump's Epstein link

President Donald Trump and other ‘higher ups’ in his administration are allegedly behind the scenes squashing congressional inquiries into his ties to the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.“Instead of hearings, where witnesses are sworn in and members can make motions, the panel has instead been holding roundtables, a different format that carries no such risk,” The Hill's Rebecca Beitsch reported on Wednesday. “The move comes after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) moved to subpoena then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, gaining support from all Democrats and four of her GOP colleagues on the panel. But after Bondi failed to appear for a deposition on April 14, Democrats say Republicans are trying to thwart an effort to hold her in contempt.”Beitsch noted the “unusual alliance” between House Oversight Committee Democrats and Republican members like Mace and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) in unveiling the files.“I hate it,” Boebert told The Hill, adding that the format change seemed to come from a “higher up,” and she complained that “apparently we’ve been put on restriction. I didn’t know I could be grounded at 39 years old.”She speculated that the Republican lawmakers in charge of the committee “heard from the administration and have decided to do no oversight over the administration because they’re trying to please Donald Trump.”Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) confirmed Boebert’s suspicions, stating that “I’ve heard enough to strongly believe that the administration and Oversight Committee leadership is working in concert, and that’s not how oversight is supposed to work of an administration. I get they’re in the same party, but we shouldn’t be a rubber stamp committee when our job is to do oversight of the executive branch.” Trump, who was close friends with Epstein since the 1980s, is accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old near the start of his friendship. The alleged victim came forward to the FBI in 2019 and had multiple interviews, and details of her story were later independently confirmed by a South Carolina newspaper, The Post and Courier.Boebert has previously clashed with Trump over matters like the Epstein files, and has even accused him of retaliating against her state (Colorado) because she moved to force their release in November.“… Trump decided to veto … a bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously,” Boebert said to Colorado news reporter Kyle Clark. “Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections… I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability. Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.”Boebert added, “I thought the [Trump] campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape.”The bill Trump vetoed would have built a pipeline to bring clean drinking water to communities on the Eastern Plains between Colorado’s Pueblo and Lamar cities. It was Trump’s first veto in his second term.