House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is confident that the Trump administration will release the Epstein files after the committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice for them Tuesday.
Comer says he doesn’t anticipate a conflict with the DOJ over the files, which the Trump administration has yet to release after President Donald Trump pledged to make the files public during his presidential campaign.
“I don’t think we will have put up a fight with the DOJ because President Trump said he is going to release the Epstein files, I take him at his word,” Comer told Fox News.
As the DOJ considers the subpoena, it is also debating whether to publicly release a transcript of a late-July interview between Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell, an associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, could provide valuable testimony that should shed more light on Epstein’s crimes and his famous associates. Trump said last week that “we’d like to release everything, but we don’t want people to get hurt that shouldn’t be hurt.”
Comer says the administration wants to be transparent.
“I can assure you the Republicans want transparency more than Democrats,” he said. “We’re gonna do our job. We’re gonna provide oversight. I think we have got an administration that wants to be transparent.”
The Kentucky Republican added that he hoped to bring in people soon to depose and interview them. Comer has subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton, former first lady Hillary Clinton, former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller, and former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, Alberto Gonzales, Loretta Lynch, and Eric Holder for depositions.
When the administration first showed reluctance to release the Epstein files after months of speculation that they would, many pointed fingers at Trump, a former associate of Epstein. Attorney General Pam Bondi told the president that his name was mentioned in the Epstein files multiple times.
But Trump doubts that anything in the files can be used against him. “If they were going to use the files, they would’ve used it before my election,” Trump said. “Unless they’re stupid, which to a certain extent, they are stupid.”
“They controlled the files for four years. So if they had something, they would’ve released it before the election,” Trump added, describing them as “evil people.”
TRUMP SAYS HE WANTS ‘EVERYTHING’ IN THE EPSTEIN FILES TO BE RELEASED
Maxwell was recently moved to a minimum-security prison for reasons that are unclear. The prison move appeared to be an upgrade for Maxwell. She went from a low-security Tallahassee, Florida, facility to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
She opposed the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts in her case on Tuesday. “Jeffrey Epstein is dead,” her lawyers wrote. “Ghislaine Maxwell is not. Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.”