A prominent social media account run by a Democratic congressional staffer collaborated on an Instagram post this week calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to "hunt down" and kill people named in the Jeffrey Epstein files, the latest in a string of incendiary posts from an account that multiple sitting House Democrats have chosen to partner with.
The "Dear White Staffers" account, operated by Philip Bennett, the operations director for Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), boosted a post by activist Ariana Jasmine that read, in part: "As an American, I would like my tax dollars to be used for ICE to hunt down and [shoot]/[kill] the people in the Epstein files, not random immigrants." The New York Post reported that the collaboration post appeared on Tuesday, and that Bennett did not respond to a request for comment.
Jasmine appended a defiant coda: "I said what I said." She also dared critics to sue her over the call.
The "Dear White Staffers" account started as a platform for minority staffers on Capitol Hill to air workplace grievances and share gossip about lawmakers. It has since become something else entirely, a megaphone for rhetoric that would end the career of any Republican staffer who typed it.
Bennett, who also founded the Congressional Workers Union and previously worked for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), runs the account across Instagram and X. His track record there is not subtle.
On April 4, the account posted on X: "If Trump dies while I'm in a movie theater can I interrupt the movie to tell everyone." On February 4, 2025, it responded to a post about the annual Congressional baseball game with: "Maybe Democrats shouldn't be playing a baseball with fascists." After the 2024 presidential election, the account declared: "Dems about to get real f, ing racist."
These are not stray remarks from an anonymous troll. They come from a named staffer drawing a paycheck from a sitting member of Congress, a "Squad" member, no less.
What makes this more than a social media sideshow is the list of elected Democrats who have actively partnered with the account. Just two days after the post calling for extrajudicial killings of Epstein-connected individuals, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, did his own collaboration post with "Dear White Staffers" in which he called for ICE to be abolished.
Garcia's decision to lend his name and platform to an account that had, 48 hours earlier, amplified a call for government agents to kill American citizens raises an obvious question: Does the ranking member of the committee charged with government oversight not review who he collaborates with?
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) also cross-posted with the account to mark the one-year anniversary of the introduction of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The exact content of Khanna's collaboration was not detailed, but the association itself is telling. The account's content is not hidden. It is public, archived, and linked.
The Epstein files have become a politically charged issue across the aisle. The Justice Department finished releasing approximately 3.5 million pages of Epstein-related documents earlier this year, and the files include names of scores of people who were not connected to any of the late financier's crimes. That context makes the call to "hunt down" anyone whose name appears in those documents not just reckless but genuinely dangerous, it treats an unfiltered document dump as a kill list.
Consider the reaction if a Republican staffer ran an anonymous account that fantasized about a Democratic president's death, mused about political violence at a bipartisan sporting event, and then amplified a post calling for federal agents to execute people based on their appearance in unredacted government files. The staffer would be fired before lunch. The member of Congress would face a formal censure resolution by dinner.
Bennett still has his job. Lee's office has not publicly addressed the account. Garcia collaborated with it after the post went live. No Democratic leader has condemned the content.
The Epstein case has generated legitimate public anger. Victims have testified before Congress about horrific abuse, and the scope of the cover-up has frustrated Americans across the political spectrum. Congressional testimony has revealed Epstein aides bribing jail guards with cash and Disneyland tickets. The public's demand for accountability is real and warranted.
But accountability means trials, investigations, and due process, not Instagram posts calling for federal agents to shoot people. And the frustration over the pace of disclosure has cut in every direction. Even the administration acknowledged missteps in the rollout of the files, and members of both parties have pushed for greater transparency.
The deeper problem is institutional. "Dear White Staffers" is not a fringe account with twelve followers. It is a platform that Democratic members of Congress actively seek out for collaborations. Its content is frequently promoted by many Democrats in Congress. That makes every post a reflection of the party's tolerance for the rhetoric it contains.
When the account posted about the Congressional baseball game, the same event where a gunman opened fire on Republican members in 2017, writing that "maybe Democrats shouldn't be playing a baseball with fascists," that was not edgy commentary. It was a staffer on a Democratic payroll suggesting that bipartisan participation in a charity event was a mistake because Republicans are fascists.
Lawmakers like Nancy Mace have faced real political consequences for pushing aggressively on the Epstein files. Meanwhile, a Democratic staffer amplifies a call for extrajudicial killings and the party's response is silence.
Investigation into Epstein's network has also shown that Epstein himself tried to dig up dirt on political figures before his death, a reminder that the files are a complex evidentiary record, not a simple roster of guilt. Treating them as a target list is not justice. It is mob logic dressed up as righteousness.
Bennett has not responded to press inquiries. Rep. Lee has not distanced herself from her staffer's extracurricular project. Garcia collaborated with the account days after the post appeared. Khanna has cross-posted with it. No formal consequences have been reported for Jasmine or Bennett.
The pattern is clear. When rhetoric comes from the left's institutional allies, the usual gatekeepers, party leadership, platform moderators, mainstream media, treat it as background noise. When it comes from the right, it becomes a five-alarm crisis requiring congressional hearings and advertiser boycotts.
Americans watching this unfold can draw their own conclusions. A Democratic congressional staffer runs an account that fantasizes about a president's death, jokes about political violence, and amplifies calls for government agents to kill citizens. Elected Democrats line up to collaborate with it. Nobody in the party says a word.
If this is what accountability looks like on the left, no wonder they keep losing elections.
