(AFP) – A US House of Representatives committee released a first batch of documents on Tuesday from the investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a case that has become a political lightning rod for the Trump administration. More than 33,000 pages of records related to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell were uploaded to a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform website after being handed over by the Justice Department.
“We’re in the process of uploading those documents for full transparency so everyone in America can see those documents,” Republican committee chairman James Comer said. “It’s going as quick as we can get them uploaded,” Comer told reporters. “We want those to be public as soon as possible.”
Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls recruited to provide him with sexual massages. President Donald Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and held as an article of faith that “deep state” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood — but not Trump.
Many of his supporters have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said in July that Epstein had committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.” Comer’s committee had subpoenaed the Justice Department for the documents, and a first batch of records was turned over last month. It was not immediately clear what is new in the documents released on Tuesday, some of which are completely redacted. Thousands of documents related to the Epstein probe have been released previously, and Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House committee, said most of the records released on Tuesday had already been made public.
– ‘Horrific’ – The House committee said in a statement that it expects to receive more records from the Justice Department, and they are being redacted to protect “victim identities” and remove “any child sexual abuse material.” Trump was once a friend of Epstein and, according to The Wall Street Journal, the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the Epstein files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.
The House Oversight Committee also heard closed-door testimony on Tuesday from victims of Epstein and Maxwell. “The stories were horrific and infuriating,” Garcia said on X. “In the days and weeks ahead we will be hearing more from these victims.” The Justice Department released a transcript and audio recording last month of an interview with Maxwell in which she said Trump was friendly with Epstein but was “never inappropriate with anybody.” Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein, was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer. The 63-year-old Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, was moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas following the interview with Blanche.
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