The Justice Department pushed back Tuesday against Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) over his panel’s final report urging federal authorities to revisit parts of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, insisting the case remains open.
“With all due respect, the Chairman’s recommendations have already been addressed,” a DOJ spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in response to Comer’s report.
“The Attorney General has repeatedly said that the Epstein case is not closed and there is no statute of limitations on human trafficking,” the spokesperson added.
The response came hours after Comer released a 137-page final report concluding that decades of failures by federal investigators and prosecutors allowed Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell to continue exploiting young women and girls.
The report, transmitted to the DOJ and the Treasury Department, recommended that investigators interview or reinterview key witnesses, examine allegations involving Epstein’s associates, and establish a process allowing survivors to obtain unredacted personal investigative files.
The DOJ disputed the need for a new records-access process, pointing to an existing FBI procedure.
“The Chairman should know that the FBI has a long-established ‘process for crime victims and their representatives to access personal files’ that starts by filing out form DOJ-361,” the spokesperson said.
The department also criticized the committee for failing to acknowledge what it described as the “historical overlap between potential co-conspirators and victims,” information it said lawmakers who reviewed investigative materials could examine themselves.
“The Department will continue following all additional investigative leads in matters relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” the spokesperson said, encouraging victims with evidence to contact the FBI.
The committee’s recommendations included further questioning Epstein’s longtime assistant Lesley Groff and investigating sexual assault allegations made by former assistant Sarah Kellen against former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai. Those allegations have not been established as criminal wrongdoing.
“The federal government has failed the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes for decades,” Comer said in a statement accompanying the report.
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The Republican majority’s report also concluded that its investigation uncovered no evidence implicating President Donald Trump in Epstein’s crimes.
The dispute comes as Democrats prepare to make further scrutiny of Epstein-related records a major oversight priority over the next two years, despite the Comer-led committee’s final report.
Maxwell, convicted in 2021 of crimes involving the sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors, is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.