Members of the House are taking different approaches on how to handle the files of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, as the public is demanding transparency on who was involved in the abuse of underage girls.
Epstein died in a New York correctional center in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Officials say Epstein, who was already a convicted sex offender, died by hanging himself.
While alive, Epstein maintained friendships with many high-profile men and women, ranging from presidents to power brokers and moguls to movie stars, which has led some to insist without evidence that he left behind a damaging “client list” with their names on it.
Legislators vow to make their own list
On Wednesday, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., held a press conference with some of Epstein’s victims where they spoke out about their abuse, and vowed to compile their own client list.
“Please come forward, and we’ll compile our own list and seek justice on our own,” self-identified accuser Lisa Phillips told NBC News. “A lot of us survivors know we’ve been compiling lists of our own, and we have so many other survivors.”
The plea comes in the wake of the Department of Justice asserting in a memo that Epstein did not maintain a client list. Attorney General Pam Bondi has faced the brunt of the scrutiny over the administration’s handling of the case.
Multiple demonstrators came to the press conference and had signs that read “Release all the Files Now” and “Believe all Survivors.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who was at the press conference, said that the House Oversight Committee had released a batch of files related to Epstein, but more needed to be released.
“We need the files in their entirety with the victims’ names redacted,” Pressley said while among the crowd of demonstrators. “I’m calling for and demanding a congressional hearing to center the voices of the stories of the survivors.”
Horror stories in private briefing to Oversight Committee
On Tuesday, there was a closed-door briefing where six of Epstein’s victims shared their stories with the House Oversight Committee.
“One of the stories we heard yesterday was from a young woman whose mother was battling cancer and Jeffrey Epstein had ties to Mount Sinai and threatened with ‘if you want your mother to receive quality care, you need to do whatever I ask of you,'” Pressley said. “This trauma never leaves you. Many of these girls, when they first started being groomed, were 13 years old, and then they went on to be raped and trafficked well into their teens and early twenties.”
Massie and Khanna are attempting to get the files released via a discharge petition, which lets a majority of members force a bill out of committee and onto the House floor for a final vote. It would require 218 signatures to move forward.
So far, the petition has 206 signatures, with only four Republicans signing onto it. The Republicans are Lauren Boebert (Colorado), Nancy Mace (South Carolina), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Massie.
Following Massie and Khanna’s press conference, House Republicans approved a resolution of support for the Oversight Committee’s Epstein probe. The leadership-backed measure was approved 212-208, The Hill reported. This version notably just expresses support for the Oversight Committee’s ongoing review and merely asks it to continue its work.
Massie called the vote “meaningless.”
Different approaches to releasing more information
Members on the House Oversight Committee are taking a different approach on how to get more information from Epstein, such as releasing files in batches and issuing subpoenas.
House Republicans on Tuesday released the first batch of Epstein files. On Aug. 22, the Department of Justice delivered the first batch of Epstein files to Congress. The House Oversight Committee took more than a week to review the roughly 33,000 files.
Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who has not signed Massie’s discharge petition, wrote in a lengthy post on X that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., will be sending a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to the U.S. Treasury because there is a money trail that has to be followed with how Epstein operated. A SARS request seeks normally confidential records filed by financial institutions with the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and may detail transactions that signal money laundering, fraud, or other illegal activity.
Comer issues subpoenas to the Clintons, former A.G.’s and possibly others
“Epstein’s network was described as an international trafficking network to all members of congress who were present (both Democrat and Republican) and also involved trafficking women from Slavic nations as well. Immigration fraud, etc.,” Luna wrote. “Many of those women have stayed silent due to fear of retribution.” She claimed that there were foreign governments working with Epstein, but she did not name which ones.
Comer announced this week that he has issued subpoenas to individuals who were allegedly involved with or close to Epstein.
“We subpoenaed six former attorneys general, as well as Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton,” Comer said in a video posted by conservative political commentator Benny Johnson. “We’ve expanded that to Alex Acosta. Acosta is coming in, I believe, September the 19th, 16th or 19th. We’ve got that date down.”
