Offering a preview of 2026, a promotion-seeking congressman insisted fellow Democrats need to “telegraph” their plans involving the Justice Department and Jeffrey Epstein.
(Video Credit: MS NOW)
At every turn during President Donald Trump’s second administration, the left has been stuck grasping at losing arguments or pivoting to another talking point, be it on open borders, wasted taxpayer money, or outright fraud. Now, as a questionable release of files regarding the late convicted sex offender provided fodder to go after the executive branch, California Rep. Eric Swalwell talked up the intent to defund the DOJ if given the chance.
Appearing on MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” the lawmaker — one of many Democrats vying to succeed term-limited incumbent California Gov. Gavin Newsom — was asked by Laura Barron-Lopez how he and his peers intended to pursue accountability. “They’ve been slow-walking the release of the documents that they have had. Is there any conversation going on amongst lawmakers on House Judiciary, which you sit on, about holding the president or the Justice Department, or Attorney General Pam Bondi accountable on this?”
“It’s not as if there was, you know, a big surprise that, you know, we’d be seeking these documents. And in fact, the attorney general had referenced about eight months ago that SDNY, where these documents have just been found, had documents that she wasn’t aware of back then,” asserted Swalwell. “So, just imagine if you’re a career prosecutor and you went to the Department of Justice, you know, to put bad guys away, stop public corruption, fight terrorism, and now you find yourself scrubbing through, you know, a million documents to keep the president’s name, you know, redacted and disconnected from the world’s most notorious child sex trafficker.”
“That’s what DOJ lawyers and FBI agents are doing right now,” he insisted. “But to the earlier question, yes, every member of the Judiciary Committee, every Republican, every Democrat voted to release these documents and to have them in our hands yesterday. Not today. Not tomorrow. Yesterday, they were supposed to be in our hands so that we could stand up for victims and to make sure that we know the names of the people who enabled Jeffrey Epstein. They have not done that yet.”
“So here’s what we can do. We can restrict funding to the Department of Justice. Of course, we can bring officials in under inherent contempt. But also, what we can do is we can bring them in for hearings,” added the lawmaker. “And I would recommend that’s the best thing that we could do is to have a public account and to put them in the witness chair and ask, just where the hell are these files, and why are you keeping Donald Trump’s name, to the degree that you are, out of them.”
While such a prospect undoubtedly conjured up images of the sham that was the highly produced Jan. 6 committee, Barron-Lopez went on to point out that such actions — and more likely impeaching officials of the Trump administration — would require a Democrat majority.
To that, Swalwell, who is facing allegations of mortgage fraud, conceded that what he was pitching amounted to an expected campaign talking point leading up to the 2026 midterm elections, “Yes, and so we have to telegraph that that’s what we are willing to do if we are given the majority.”
Unhinged Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell says Democrats will impeach Trump officials if they win back the House in 2026.
SWALWELL: “That’s what we’re willing to do if we are given the majority.” pic.twitter.com/bl9OqWGFuI
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 28, 2025
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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