A congressional panel has released more than 33,000 pages of documents tied to the federal investigation of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But lawmakers from both parties say the material sheds little new light on his crimes or associates, leaving questions about what the Justice Department may still be withholding.
33,000 pages of records released onlineThe House Oversight Committee, chaired by Republican James Comer of Kentucky, ordered the release of 33,295 pages of records on Tuesday. The trove includes court filings, emails, flight logs, police bodycam footage, and 13 hours of surveillance video from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where Epstein died in August 2019.
The newly released video includes the so-called “missing minute” from the night of Epstein’s death. Earlier DOJ releases showed a 60-second time gap shortly before midnight, which critics cited to fuel conspiracy theories.
Officials later attributed the anomaly to the jail’s cameras resetting. The new footage, however, fills in that gap, according to the BBC.
Despite the scale of the release, Comer admitted the documents do not contain major revelations. “As far as I can see, there’s nothing new in the documents,” he told NBC News.
Top Democrats on the Oversight Committee voiced similar frustration. Representative Robert Garcia said that after reviewing the material, Democrats determined that “97 percent of the documents” were already public.
“There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims,” Garcia said in a statement, via NBC. Representative Summer Lee added that the only new disclosure appeared to be flight logs from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, documenting Epstein’s movements to and from his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Survivors meet with lawmakersEarlier in the day, House Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the committee met behind closed doors with six of Epstein’s victims. Johnson told reporters that “there were tears in the room” as the women recounted their experiences. Republican Nancy Mace left the meeting visibly emotional, while Democrat Melanie Stansbury described the case as a “cover-up of epic proportions," the BBC writes.
Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also come out in defense of releasing the the Epstein files, taking to X to write: "I’m committed to doing everything possible for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. Including exposing the cabal of rich and powerful elites that enabled this."
She had earlier stated that the government "holds the full truth" and that it "needs to come out".
A news conference with lawmakers and survivors is expected on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Pressure builds for full disclosureThe document dump follows increasing pressure from both sides of the aisle (and from Trump supporters in particular) to demand more transparency about Epstein’s connections. In July, the Justice Department insisted that no incriminating “client list” exists, but skepticism remains.
Republican Thomas Massie, a Kentucky congressman, has introduced a bipartisan measure to force the DOJ to release all remaining Epstein files within 30 days, The Independent reports. “It’s not the biggest issue in the country,” Massie said. “But you really can’t solve bigger issues like taxes or the economy if this place is corrupt.”
For now, the latest release appears to raise more questions than it answers, and to reinforce suspicions among critics that the government has yet to reveal the full truth about Epstein’s network.