The fact that Vladimir Putin appears in the Epstein files roughly 1,000 times, without being accused as a predator himself, strongly suggests intelligence collection for blackmail purposes. If that is the case, then the Epstein matter is not just a criminal scandal but an immediate and emerging national security crisis. Congress should be investigating this starting tomorrow. We have no clear understanding of what leverage Putin may have gained over senior levels of the U.S. government, whether to extract state secrets or to shape decision-making itself. And given how Russian intelligence operates, it is naive to think that any such information would not ultimately be shared with Xi Jinping and used for leverage on the global stage.