The Department of Justice will begin providing records to Congress related to the late former Trump associate and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, according to the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
“There are many records in DOJ's custody, and it will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, said in a statement on X on Monday. “I appreciate the Trump Administration's commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter."
The Justice Department declined to comment.
The disclosures to Congress come despite the Justice Department concluding in July that no further disclosures about Epstein were warranted.
The stance infuriated members of the MAGA base who had been expecting the Trump administration to release vast amounts of Epstein information, only for the attorney general to share a small batch of content, that was already largely public, with conservative influencers earlier this year.
The DOJ was facing a Tuesday deadline to comply with a subpoena from the committee, which began seeking the records earlier this month. The request also included 10 other subpoenas to former Democratic and Republican officials for information about potential associations with and investigations of Epstein.
The committee has also sought testimony from Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison federal sentence for her part in a scheme to abuse and sexually exploit girls alongside Epstein.
Her testimony had been planned for mid-August, but has since been postponed, pending the former British socialite’s petition for appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration has been facing rare bipartisan pressure amid anger that it hasn’t done more to disclose information about the late financier, after campaigning on promises of more transparency surrounding the so-called “Epstein files.”
In early September, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie and Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna will bring survivors of Epstein’s abuse to Washington as part of the push to release more information about Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting a federal sex trafficking trial.
Beyond Capitol Hill, constituents have heckled Republican lawmakers during district town hall events over the administration’s handling of the Epstein affair.
