The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released more than 33,000 pages of material related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the first large-scale publication of documents provided by the Justice Department under subpoena in the committee’s ongoing review of the Epstein case.
The records, sent to the panel in August, include investigation files from the FBI, victim statements, and videos collected during the government’s yearslong investigation into Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell. While the release fulfills months of Republican calls for greater transparency, a significant portion of the material has already been made public through prior litigation or press coverage. The Washington Examiner counted 27 videos and 56 audio files included in a Google Drive provided to the public by the committee.
Tuesday’s release included portions of victim interviews, including one video in which a woman described being in nothing but her panties when she was providing a massage on one of Epstein’s properties at the age of 20, adding that she also witnessed Epstein “masturbating” during one instance, a description of an incident that has already been reported in public court records.
A separate video shows interior footage of his Palm Beach residence, with photos of Epstein and Maxwell on display, eccentric art pieces, and other household decor. It’s not clear the extent to which the records, both visible and audible, are entirely new in the tranche released Tuesday evening.
The full government case file on Epstein is believed to contain over 300 gigabytes of data, much of it stored in the FBI’s Sentinel case management system.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the documents mark the beginning of the committee’s public disclosure effort, though the timing also blunts pressure from within Comer’s own party. On Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed a long-awaited discharge petition that would force a House vote on releasing the full cache of Epstein files— an effort that could lose momentum toward the necessary 218 House supporters with the committee’s release of files provided by the DOJ.
Still, critics of the committee’s work have already pointed out that many of the paper files in Tuesday evening’s release are already publicly available through court records.
“I’m surprised that the Biden administration never released the documents,” Comer told the Washington Examiner when asked what was new in the files. “I appreciate the Trump administration releasing them. I guess that’s been the biggest surprise.”
Deposition plans, subpoena deadlines, and internal divides
Comer’s investigation also targets individuals previously associated with Epstein. The committee is scheduling closed-door depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, and former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, who negotiated Epstein’s 2008 non-prosecution agreement while serving as the top federal prosecutor in Miami.
Last week, the committee also subpoenaed Epstein’s estate for records—including a so-called “birthday book” reportedly compiled by Maxwell that may contain names and notes about Epstein’s guests. Notably, the Wall Street Journal has been sued by President Donald Trump after reporting that Trump allegedly wrote Epstein a letter in honor of his 50th birthday, a claim he vehemently denied and an allegation Maxwell recently said in a DOJ interview she could not confirm to be true. The deadline for the estate to comply with the subpoena is Sept. 8.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence following her 2021 federal conviction for sex trafficking and conspiracy. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial, with authorities ruling his death a suicide despite widespread public speculation that the disgraced financier did not kill himself.
The DOJ’s turning over of Epstein-related documents follows public fallout from earlier this summer, when the department announced after the July 4 weekend that it had no plans to make any further documents available, accompanied by a ten-hour videotape from a portion of Epstein’s prison cell in New York City.
Much of the fallout began after Attorney General Pam Bondi’s statement that a so-called “client list” was on her desk during a February interview on Fox News. She clarified on July 8 that she was referring to a host of files, including “the JFK, MLK files as well.”
Democrats challenge premise of oversight probe
Democrats on the committee have cast doubt on the seriousness of the GOP-led investigation.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said Tuesday that the committee has not been engaged in any sustained inquiry into Epstein and framed the latest document release as an effort to undermine Massie’s discharge petition without making meaningful disclosures.
“There’s really no [Epstein] investigation on the Oversight Committee,” Frost told reporters. “If one’s going to start now and we’re going to demand these documents, then I welcome it. But it is just false to say that the Oversight Committee has been engaged in some grand investigation. No, we haven’t.”
Other Republicans like Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) countered that the release Tuesday evening marked an “important step toward exposing the truth and holding everyone involved accountable.”
The most recent public release of Epstein-related information came on Aug. 22, when the DOJ released a full nine-hour interview of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s conversation with Maxwell in July, just before she was abruptly transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security facility in Texas without explanation last month.
NINE TAKEAWAYS FROM DOJ INTERVIEW WITH GHISLAINE MAXWELL
Blanche went on the record that Maxwell’s compliance with the government did not indicate she would benefit in any way, such as potential clemency or immunity, as her counsel has indicated she would seek if she were to be called to testify before Congress.
Maxwell spoke fondly of Trump in her interview despite acknowledging she did not know him too well and saying she never saw Trump behave inappropriately with other women. Trump has shot down reporters’ questions about any potential pardons or clemency actions for Maxwell, but he has said it is his right as president to do so.
Lauren Green contributed to this report.