Epstein Report Blasts DOJ Failures, Urges New InterviewsWorld

“The federal government has failed the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes for decades,” said James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the committee. “Epstein operated with impunity, shielded and enabled by powerful connections and a justice system that repeatedly failed his victims.”

The most serious failure identified in the report concerns Florida. Rather than fully investigating allegations in other states, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida entered a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein in 2007 that allowed him to avoid a federal indictment in exchange for a guilty plea to lesser state charges in Florida. The report says federal prosecutors showed poor judgment and were influenced by Epstein’s wide-reaching connections.

The committee also faulted financial institutions that it said missed or ignored warning signs of trafficking, and some of Epstein’s closest employees, including his former assistant Lesley Groff, whose testimony the committee described as not credible. It urged the Justice Department to investigate several people that another former Epstein assistant, Sarah Kellen, had accused of abuse.

The report further criticised the Justice Department’s handling of records released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law passed after public backlash to a joint Justice Department and FBI memo last year. It said the department had failed to comply with the law’s requirements, had improperly released sensitive information about victims, and had prevented victims from having full access to the files.

Democrats on the committee sharply rejected the report. Robert Garcia of California, the panel’s top Democrat, called it the product of an incomplete investigation with no public hearings, and accused the Justice Department of withholding more than 2.5 million pages of documents. Democrats have vowed to continue the investigation when they take control of the committee in the new Congress, with Mr Garcia set to become its chairman.

The report notably says it found no documents implicating President Donald Trump in criminal activity related to Epstein. Mr Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019. The committee attributed his death to institutional failures, including staffing shortages, poor recordkeeping and lax security. Mr Comer, who will soon give up the chairmanship, said there was still a great deal of work to be done on the case.