WASHINGTON ― House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Monday the Justice Department would soon begin handing over some of its material on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“Officials with the Department of Justice have informed us that the Department will begin to provide Epstein-related records to the Oversight Committee this week on Friday,” Comer said in a press release.
It’s a significant development after the Trump administration said last month it would not release any material relating to its prosecution of Epstein, who died in jail after being indicted in 2019 for sex trafficking minors.
The committee issued a subpoena for the material earlier this month following a surprising bipartisan vote during a right-wing uproar over the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files.
Comer cautioned that the material wouldn’t come out quickly, however, and it’s not clear what the committee might ultimately make public.
“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,” Comer said.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat said the committee issued a subpoena for the full Epstein files, not a piecemeal trickle of documents.
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“Releasing the Epstein files in batches just continues this White House cover-up. The American people will not accept anything short of the full, unredacted Epstein files,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said. “In a bipartisan vote, the Committee demanded complete compliance with our subpoena. Handpicked, partial productions are wholly insufficient and potentially misleading, especially after Attorney General Bondi bragged about having the entirety of the Epstein files on her desk mere months ago.”
The committee also sent subpoenas to Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as a plethora of former Justice Department officials. Former attorney general Bill Barr sat for a deposition on Monday.
“He said that he had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump in any of this, and that he believed if there had been anything pertaining to President Trump, with respect to the Epstein list, that he felt like the Biden administration would have probably leaked it out,” Comer told reporters outside the deposition room.