House Oversight Committee releases some Justice Department files in Epstein and Maxwell cases

WASHINGTON AP The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell The folders contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell They also contained video files appearing to be body cam footage from police searches as well as law enforcement interviews with casualties with their faces obscured The Justice Department distributed the files to the committee in response to a subpoena but the files mostly contain information that was already publicly known Still pressure is growing in Congress for lawmakers to act to force greater disclosure in the affair House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quell an effort by Democrats and specific Republicans to force a vote on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all the information in the so-called Epstein files with the exception of the sufferers personal information of the casualties Acting briskly lawmakers pressing for the full release of the so-called Epstein files launched a campaign for the House to take up their bill Meanwhile Johnson and a bipartisan group of lawmakers met with survivors of abuse by Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell The objective here is not just to uncover investigate the Epstein evils but also to ensure that this never happens again and ultimately to find out why justice has been delayed for these ladies for so very long noted Johnson R-La after he emerged from a two-hour meeting with six of the survivors It is inexcusable And it will stop now because the Congress is dialed in on this he added But there are still intense disagreements on how lawmakers should proceed Johnson is pressing for the inquiry to be handled by the House Oversight Committee and putting forward a resolution that directs the committee to publicly release its findings The files circulated Tuesday included audio of an Epstein employee describing to a law enforcement official how there were a lot of girls that were very very young visiting the home but couldn t say for sure if they were minors Over the unit of Epstein s visits to the home the man noted more than a dozen girls might visit and that he was charged with cleaning the room where Epstein had massages twice daily Certain of the interviews with officers from the Palm Beach Police Department date to according to timestamps read out by leaders at the beginning of the files Preponderance if not all of the text documents posted Tuesday had already been residents Notably the probable cause affidavit and other records from the inspection into Epstein contained a notation indicating that they d been previously circulated in a masses records request An internet search established those files were posted to the website of the Palm Beach County State Attorney s Office in July If the purpose of the release was to provide answers to a constituents still curious over the long-concluded cases the raw mechanics of the clunky rollout made that a challenge Lawmakers at p m published thousands of pages and videos via a cumbersome Google Drive leaving it to readers and viewers to decipher new and absorbing tidbits on their own The disclosure also left open the question of why the Justice Department did not release the material directly to the constituents instead of operating through Capitol Hill Meanwhile Democrats and various Republicans are trying to maneuver around Johnson s control of the House floor to hold a vote on a separate bill that would require the Justice Department to publicly release the files with the exception of names and personal information of the casualties The clash suggests little has changed in Congress since late July when Johnson sent lawmakers home early in hopes of cooling the political battle over the Epstein situation Members of both parties remain dissatisfied and are demanding more details on the years-old probe into Epstein the wealthy and well-connected financier whose death in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges has sparked wide-ranging conspiracy theories and speculation Source