WASHINGTON (AP) – The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released files received from the Department of Justice Sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein And his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell had responded to increasing pressure on Congress to force more disclosures in the case.
Still, the file mainly contains information that is already public or available. The folder posted to Google Drive contained hundreds of image files from long-standing court filings related to Epstein, who died in a New York prison cell in 2019.
The file also included a video that looked like body cam footage from a police search, as well as a recording and summary of law enforcement interviews with victims detailing the abuse they said they suffered.
The release of the committee’s files showed lawmakers were eager to act on the issue when they returned to Washington after a month’s break. They quickly revived the political clash that flummoxed the Republican leaders of the house, It disrupts President Donald Trump’s administration.
House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quell the efforts of Democrats and some Republicans to vote for a bill that requires the Department of Justice to release all information in the so-called Epstein Files, except for personal information about the victims.
What’s in the released files
If the purpose of the release was to provide answers to the still curious public in the event of long term deadlines, the raw mechanism of clunky rollout took the challenge.
At 6pm, the committee released thousands of pages and videos via the troublesome Google Drive, leaving it to readers and viewers to decipher it themselves.
The file released Tuesday included audio from an Epstein employee explaining to law enforcement officials that there were “a lot of very young girls,” but they visited the house and were unable to say for certain whether they were minors.
The man said more than dozens of girls could visit during the course of his visit to Epstein’s home, and he was charged with cleaning the room where Epstein was giving a massage twice a day.
Some pages were almost completely edited. Other documents relating to Epstein’s Florida charges led to a long-awaited plea deal, including emails between a defense attorney and a prosecutor regarding the terms of his probation following his conviction. Palm Beach County prosecutor Barbara Barnes expressed her dissatisfaction as the defense pushed for reducing client restrictions.
Several interviews with officers from the Palm Beach Police Department from 2005 to 2005, according to timestamps read by staff at the start of the file.
Most, if not all, text documents posted on Tuesday were already public. In particular, the affidavits and other records from the 2005 Epstein investigation included a notation indicating that it had been previously released in the 2017 public record request. An internet search showed that these files were posted on the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office website in July 2017.
Rep. Robert Garcia, a top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Republicans cheated Republicans on a panel and released the material he said, making it almost entirely consisting of information already available.
“The 33,000-page Epstein document that James Comer decided to “release” was already decided to be primarily public information. For Americans, don’t fool this,” Garcia said in a statement.
The disclosure uncovered the question of why the Department of Justice did not make the material public in exchange for working through Capitol Hill.
Survivors meet with lawmakers
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, a bipartisan group of House Speaker and lawmakers met with survivors of Epstein abuse Maxwell.
“The purpose here is not only to reveal Epstein’s evil, but to ensure that this never happens again, and ultimately find out why justice for these women is so long behind,” says R-La.
“That’s not allowed, and it’s stopping now because Congress is dialing this,” he added.
However, there is still a fierce disagreement about how lawmakers should proceed. Johnson is seeking the investigation to be processed by the House Oversight Committee, and is supporting the committee to publish its findings.
Promote disclosure
Meanwhile, Democrats and some Republicans were trying to manipulate Johnson’s House floor control to vote for their bill to require the Justice Department to release the files. On Tuesday evening, Democrats lined up at the House Chamber of Commerce to sign a petition from Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massey. Three other Republicans also supported the operation, but Massey would need two more GOP lawmakers and all Democrats to succeed.
If Massie, who is seeking the bill along with Rep. Ro Khanna of D-Calif, can force a vote that could take weeks, the legislation will still need to pass the Senate and sign the law by Trump.
The clash suggests that little has changed in Congress since late July when Johnson sent it. Legislators will go home early Hoping to cool the political battle over the Epstein incident. Members of both parties are unhappy and demand details about the long-standing investigation of Epstein, a wealthy and associated investor whose 2019 death sparked widespread conspiracy theories and speculation.
“We will continue to bring pressure and we are not going to stop until we get justice for all the survivors and victims,” Garcia told reporters.
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Contributors were Eric Tucker, Kevin Freakhing, Alana Durkin Richer, Mike Sissack of New York and Meg Kinnard of Chapin, South Carolina.
