House committee releases some Justice Department files in Epstein case,
but most already public
[September 03, 2025]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly
posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex
trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former
girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, responding to mounting pressure in
Congress to force more disclosure in the case.
Still, the files mostly contain information that was already publicly
known or available. The folders — posted on Google Drive — contained
hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein,
who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he faced charges for
sexually abusing teenage girls, and Maxwell, who is serving a lengthy
prison sentence for assisting him.
The files also included video appearing to be body cam footage from
police searches as well as recordings and summaries of law enforcement
interviews with victims detailing the abuse they said they suffered.
The committee's release of the files showed how lawmakers are eager to
act on the issue as they return to Washington after a monthlong break.
They quickly revived a political clash that has flummoxed House
Republican leadership and roiled President Donald Trump’s
administration.
House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quell an effort by
Democrats and some Republicans to force a vote on a bill that would
require the Justice Department to release all the information in the
so-called Epstein files, with the exception of the victims' personal
information.
What's in the released files
If the purpose of the release was to provide answers to a public still
curious over the long concluded cases, the raw mechanics of the clunky
rollout made that a challenge.
The committee at 6 p.m. released thousands of pages and videos via the
cumbersome Google Drive, leaving it to readers and viewers to decipher
new and interesting tidbits on their own.
The files released Tuesday included audio of an Epstein employee
describing to a law enforcement official how “there were a lot of girls
that were very, very young” visiting the home but couldn’t say for sure
if they were minors.
Over the course of Epstein’s visits to the home, the man said, more than
a dozen girls might visit, and he was charged with cleaning the room
where Epstein had massages, twice daily.
Some pages were almost entirely redacted. Other documents related to
Epstein’s Florida prosecution that led to a plea deal that has long been
criticized as too lenient, including emails between the defense and
prosecutors over the conditions of his probation after his conviction.
Barbara Burns, a Palm Beach County prosecutor, expressed frustration as
the defense pushed for fewer restrictions on their client: “I don’t know
how to convey to him anymore than I already have that his client is a
registered sex offender that was fortunate to get the deal of the
century.”
Some of the interviews with officers from the Palm Beach Police
Department date to 2005, according to timestamps read out by officials
at the beginning of the files.
Most, if not all, of the text documents posted Tuesday had already been
public. Notably, the probable cause affidavit and other records from the
2005 investigation into Epstein contained a notation indicating that
they’d been previously released in a 2017 public records request. An
internet search showed those files were posted to the website of the
Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office in July 2017.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Oversight
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., right, talk to reporters
after a closed-door meeting with victims in the Jeffrey Epstein sex
trafficking case investigation, at the Capitol in Washington,
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight
Committee, chided Republicans on the panel for releasing material
that he said consisted almost entirely of already available
information.
“The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to
‘release’ were already mostly public information. To the American
people — don’t let this fool you,” Garcia said in a statement.
The disclosure also left open the question of why the Justice
Department did not release the material directly to the public
instead of operating through Capitol Hill.
Survivors meet with lawmakers
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the House speaker and a bipartisan group of
lawmakers met with survivors of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.
“The objective here is not just to uncover, investigate the Epstein
evils, but also to ensure that this never happens again and
ultimately to find out why justice has been delayed for these ladies
for so very long,” said Johnson, R-La., after he emerged from a
two-hour meeting with six of the survivors.
“It is inexcusable. And it will stop now because the Congress is
dialed in on this,” he added.
But there are still intense disagreements on how lawmakers should
proceed. Johnson is pressing for the inquiry to be handled by the
House Oversight Committee and supporting the committee as it
releases its findings.
Push for disclosure continues
Meanwhile, Democrats and some Republicans were still trying to
maneuver around Johnson’s control of the House floor to hold a vote
on their bill to require the Justice Department to publicly release
files. Democrats lined up in the House chamber Tuesday evening to
sign a petition from Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, to
force a vote. Three other Republicans also supported the maneuver,
but Massie would need two more GOP lawmakers and every Democrat to
be successful.
If Massie, who is pressing for the bill alongside Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.,
is able to force a vote — which could take weeks — the legislation
would still need to pass the Senate and be signed into law by Trump.
The clash suggests little has changed in Congress since late July,
when Johnson sent lawmakers home early in hopes of cooling the
political battle over the Epstein case. Members of both parties
remain dissatisfied and are demanding more details on the years-old
investigation into Epstein, the wealthy and well-connected financier
whose 2019 death has sparked wide-ranging conspiracy theories and
speculation.
“We continue to bring the pressure. We’re not going to stop until we
get justice for all of the survivors and the victims,” Garcia told
reporters.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Kevin Freking and Alanna
Durkin Richer in Washington, Mike Sisak in New York and Meg Kinnard
in Chapin, South Carolina, contributed.
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