Lawmakers slam Trump DOJ over delay in release of Epstein files, ask NY judge to intervene
Congressional lawmakers asked a Manhattan judge to appoint a special master to facilitate the Trump Justice Department’s release of files collected on deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and accused the government of failing to follow the law, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Lawyers for Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KT) contacted the judge presiding in Ghislaine Maxwell’s Manhattan case Monday evening, seeking to intervene in the legal proceedings regarding the so-called “Epstein files” and urging him to appoint an independent party to oversee the government’s handling of the release.
Manhattan Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer detailed the request in a filing Tuesday. He ordered a briefing on the issue, directing the DOJ to respond to lawmakers’ attempt to get involved and weigh in on whether it has the authority to rule on the government’s compliance with the legislation, which was passed almost unanimously by Congress in November and signed into law by President Trump.
Engelmayer and the judge who presided over Epstein’s trial helped release a small portion of the records, covering documents from the grand jury proceedings against Epstein and Maxwell that led to their arrests. The judges lifted protective orders that had for years barred prosecutors and defense attorneys from sharing information collected in cases, and ordered the government to protect victims’ privacy at all costs.
If Maxwell wishes to be heard on the issue, the judge said she should respond by Friday.
The Epstein files legislation required the DOJ to disclose by Dec. 19 everything the agency has gathered about Epstein over the decades. While tens of thousands of documents have been made public, federal law enforcement officials have said there are several million more to review.
Epstein was found dead at age 66 in his cell in August 2019 at the since-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, about a month after his arrest on broad sex trafficking charges, with his death officially ruled a suicide.
Authorities estimated that Epstein harmed more than 1,000 women and girls during his lifetime at his lavish properties in New York, Florida and on his private Caribbean island. Evidence collected during the trial against Maxwell established that the couple typically targeted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds and daughters of poor single mothers for abuse.
Lawmakers from both parties who passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act responded to immense public pressure to expose powerful figures who may have known about and participated in the abuse. The files made public so far have shed light on many elements of Epstein’s operation and authorities’ awareness, but they have not removed the mask of previously unidentified potential co-conspirators.
The multi-millionaire wealth manager, from working-class Coney Island background, hobnobbed with some of the world’s most influential people, including Presidents Trump and Clinton and former British Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his title over his friendship with the evil financier.
The only person criminally convicted for Epstein’s rampant depravity was Maxwell. The former British socialite, who turned 64 on Christmas Day, was found guilty at a trial in December 2021 of facilitating his sexual abuse and exploitation of teenage girls and young women. She is currently defending herself to try to get out of prison, after her appeal failed.
This story will be updated.
