Lawmakers keep pushing for release of Epstein files: 'Will not be buried for decades'
WASHINGTON - Though lawmakers are on their annual one-month summer break, the controversy surrounding convicted late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hasn't left their minds.
Democrats and Republicans alike have been pushing for the release of all the Epstein files after a Justice Department report found that Epstein died by suicide and did not have a 'client list,' despite previous suggestions by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Members of Congress from both parties say they'll force more public debate on the issue when their recess ends after Labor Day.
'The Epstein case will not be buried for decades,' Missouri Republican Rep. Eric Burlison wrote in an Aug. 10 post on X. 'We are demanding records, taking depositions, and putting officials under oath. The American people need to get the truth.'
The Epstein controversy has created a schism between President Donald Trump and his MAGA base. His supporters have pushed back on the Republican administration's attempt to close the book on Epstein after Trump and his backers helped to heighten expectations of blockbuster revelations.
Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, subpoenaed longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to sit for a deposition at the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Aug. 11. But Comer ended up postponing the testimony, writing in a letter to Maxwell's attorney that the House panel will wait until after the Supreme Court considers her request to overturn a sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence.
Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, D-California, have also been leading efforts that could force a House floor vote on a bill requiring the government to release all the Epstein files. They need 218 signatures to make that happen and plan to hold a press conference on Sept. 3 with victims of Maxwell and Epstein to drum up more support for their efforts.
'The survivors deserve justice and the public deserves transparency,' Khanna wrote on X.
Trump's longtime friendship with Epstein has been under scrutiny for years. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the future president sent a lewd letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday as part of a leather-bound book with dozens of other messages, the Journal reported. Khanna and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, requested the book in a letter sent to lawyers of Epstein's estate on July 25.
The New York Times also reported that former Epstein employee Maria Farmer told law enforcement in 1996 that she encountered Trump in Epstein's office and Epstein told Trump "No, no. She's not here for you.'
Some Democrats have claimed that Trump's recent action deploying the National Guard in D.C. to crack down on crime are an attempt to distract from the Epstein controversy. 'He needs to get his base talking and thinking about something besides his refusal to open up the Epstein files because he's mixed up in them,' former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a video clip shared on X.
But Vice President JD Vance has defended Trump in multiple interviews, arguing that the president wants full transparency on the issue.
'President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years,' Vance told Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' in an interview aired Aug. 10.
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