A GOP senator is suddenly furious about the Epstein files after initially saying that she “didn’t care” about the late pedophile’s crimes.
Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, 71, told reporter Pablo Manriquez that she now understands why his crimes are a “big deal” after reviewing unredacted Epstein files on Monday.
“I’ve not been one of the members who has glommed on to this as an issue,” said Lummis. “I’ve sort of intentionally deferred to others to find out about it. But 9-year-old victims… wow.”
“Initially, my reaction to all this was, ‘I don’t care. I don’t see what the big deal is.’ But now I see what the big deal is,” she added. “The members of Congress who were pushing this were not wrong.”
The Justice Department released on Jan. 30 what it says is the final tranche of Epstein files it can make public. Monday was the first opportunity for lawmakers to review the unredacted files.
Before reviewing the files, Lummis had barely commented on Jeffrey Epstein, even as the push to release the files gained momentum in Congress last fall.
Her only public comment on the Epstein files was a boilerplate response to the scandal that she sent in November to Jimmy Skovgard, a Wyoming candidate for her opening Senate seat.
“As Congress continues to exercise its oversight responsibilities, it is critical that we pursue accountability through appropriate channels and legal processes,” she wrote in her November letter.
“You can be sure that I will work hard in the United States Senate to support justice, transparency, and the protection of victims,” she added.
Lummis, once a free speech absolutist who changed her tune after the killing of Charlie Kirk, announced in December that she would not be seeking reelection at the conclusion of her term this year.
Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lummis was among several Washington politicians who reviewed the files on Monday.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin confirmed that the unredacted files contained the identity of a 9-year-old victim.
“You read through these files, and you read about 15-year-old girls, 14-year-old girls, 10-year-old girls, said Raskin. ”I saw a mention of a nine-year-old girl today. I mean, this is just preposterous and scandalous.”
Some MAGA stalwarts walked away from their session with the files as perturbed as Lummis.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, one of the key Republican congresspeople who supported the Epstein Files Transparency Act, reviewed the unredacted files and said that she believes there are “folks that are definitely implicated and co-conspirators.”
She added that she believes Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a cushy Texas prison, should get “more time” in jail.
“She should be in a harsher prison,” Boebert said.
MAGA Rep. Anna Paulina Luna offered a similar reaction, saying, “According to the files we saw, Ghislaine Maxwell was engaged in trafficking and rape. I don’t think she deserves special treatment. She’s a monster.”
Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, the two lawmakers who led the push to release the Epstein files, said after their time with the files that they had found “six men” who were implicated, including a “high-ranking foreign official.”
“We found six men whose names have been redacted, who are implicated in the way that the files are presented,” said Massie, a 55-year-old Republican from Kentucky.
Massie sparred on social media with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over the files on Monday. He claimed the DOJ has redacted the names of powerful individuals implicated in Epstein-related crimes, including a foreign leader to whom Epstein sent an email saying, “Where are you? are you ok , I loved the torture video.”
After the two shared a nasty back-and-forth, Massie said the DOJ “1) unredacted an FBI file that LABELS two individuals as co-conspirators 2) unredacted a file that lists several men who might be implicated 3) tacitly admitted that Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was the sender of the torture video.”
