A U.S. Government committee has released a batch of files relating to the planned trial of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Democrats on the committee have said many of the materials, including 33,000 pages of documents, were already publicly available.
The Trump administration has been under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to release the files.
Jeffrey Epstein
Epstein was a wealthy financier who was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
He had already served jail time over a previous offence involving an underage girl in 2008.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City a month after his 2019 arrest. Investigators concluded he died by suicide.
Ghislaine Maxwell, his former partner, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping him traffic and abuse teenage girls.
Files
The ‘Epstein Files’ is the name given to documents held by the Department of Justice (DoJ) from its investigation into Epstein.
He was known to have links to A-list celebrities, political figures, and billionaires from around the world.
This included Prince Andrew (King Charles’ brother), former President Bill Clinton, and current President Donald Trump.
They also relate to the activities that occurred on Epstein‘s private Caribbean islands.
Release
The U.S. House Oversight Committee has been investigating the DoJ’s investigation of Epstein.
It legally requested the DoJ’s files last month. The request has partly been granted, with files published today ranging from records of Epstein’s flight logs to a copy of the judgment handed down in Maxwell’s trial.
In a statement, the committee said the DoJ would release further documents, but was currently redacting (erasing) some of their contents to protect “victim identities and any child sexual abuse material”.
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Response
One of the top Democrats on the Oversight Committee, California representative Robert Garcia, said: “Most of the documents that were sent to the committee... were given to right-wing influencers back in February”.
Another Democrat, Ro Khanna, estimated 97% of the documents were already publicly-available.
Republicans are divided over the release of the documents. Trump was photographed with Epstein on several occasions in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
What now?
Republican Thomas Massie, a Kentucky representative who heads the committee, has filed a Congress petition that could see a request for the DoJ to release all the remaining files.
It needs at least half of the 335 member chamber to vote to in favour.
In the hours since it was posted, more than 130 representatives have signed the petition, including four Republicans.
One of the Republicans to sign the petition is Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a known supporter of Trump.
In a social media post, she said: “I’m committed to doing everything possible for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The Oversight Committee has also issued a separate order urging former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, to testify about Epstein in Congress.
The order would also compel senior American officials, including former Trump-appointed attorneys-general Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, to appear before the Committee.
