The Justice Department is expected to start turning over documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee from Friday.
Earlier this month, the committee subpoenaed the DOJ regarding the criminal case against the late convicted sex offender and financier that has recently shaken the top levels of President Donald Trump’s administration and been a consistent magnet for conspiracy theories.
Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the Republican committee chair, said in a statement that the DOJ has many records and gave it time to ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material is redacted.
Once received, the committee plans to make public some of the Epstein files, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN. It is not clear when that will be.
The Epstein files became one of the biggest scandals of the Trump presidency when the DOJ and FBI announced in July that no further disclosures would be made regarding the case. This followed years of now senior administration officials spreading conspiracies about a client list and promising to release all the documents.
Members of Trump’s MAGA base, many of whom were eagerly anticipating bombshell revelations, were infuriated. The White House has since been trying to contain the fallout and backlash.
Chair James Comer says redactions will be made to protect identities of Epstein sex-trafficking victims
Kentucky Rep. Comer, the Republican chair of the Oversight Committee, said in a statement that the DOJ has many records and gave it time to ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material is redacted.
Justice Department to hand over Epstein files to House Oversight committee on Friday
The Justice Department is expected to start turning over documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee from today.
Earlier this month, the committee subpoenaed the DOJ regarding the criminal case against the late convicted sex offender and financier that has recently shaken the top levels of President Donald Trump’s administration and been a consistent magnet for conspiracy theories.
The DOJ and FBI’s abrupt announcement in early July that Epstein left behind no “client list” and that he died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in August 2019 infuriated Trump’s supporters, many of whom had hoped to see the disgraced billionaire’s powerful associates brought to justice and believed he may have been murdered in prison to silence him.
Trump himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein but was once friendly with him socially in New York and Florida and has struggled to make the story go away and is suing The Wall Street Journal for suggesting he once sent the late pedophile a “bawdy” birthday doodle.
Here’s Josh Marcus on the files handover.
Good morning
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Donald Trump’s administration as the Justice Department is expected to turn over documents relating to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
