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Congressional Republicans are pressing for renewed investigations into sex crimes cases involving disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, accusing authorities of mishandling the case for decades.
The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Tuesday released a new 137-page report marking the most comprehensive investigation yet by lawmakers into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein saga.
The findings condemned federal investigators and prosecutors in South Florida and Washington for alleged negligence, which the committee said allowed the late sex offender’s abuse to go unchecked as far back as 2005, when Epstein’s crimes first came to light in Palm Beach, Florida.
“What we found was both heartbreaking and infuriating,” Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the committee, said in a video address.
“These women endured unimaginable abuse, and the federal government failed them at nearly every turn,” he added. “Had the government done its job, much of this abuse could have been prevented.”
The committee, which currently holds a Republican majority, is the House’s main investigative panel and has the power to subpoena witnesses and documents.
Democrats will take control of the chamber in January after a historic victory in the November 3 midterm elections, and California Representative Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, formally announced his bid to chair it in a letter to colleagues on Thursday.
The latest findings cap a 15-month Republican-led congressional inquiry that involved 19 transcribed interviews and depositions, subpoenas to federal agencies, financial institutions and Epstein’s estate, and an extensive review of financial records.
Its conclusions asserted that a combination of bureaucratic indifference, missed warnings and compromised plea deals consistently shielded Epstein and his associates while denying justice to their victims.
In one such instance, GOP lawmakers sharply rebuked a controversial 2007 non-prosecution agreement in South Florida that effectively shelved Epstein’s federal case after he pleaded guilty to lesser state offences.
Florida prosecutors, working alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at the time granted him a lenient 18-month sentence alongside extensive work-release privileges, a period during which he continued to abuse women, according to the report.
The panel ascribed the outcomes to “poor judgment” and Epstein’s influence, while flagging potential conflicts of interest involving two former prosecutors, Matthew Menchel and Bruce Reinhart, then employed in the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Southern District of Florida.
“Former US Attorney Alexander Acosta’s hands-off approach to the investigation and his failures to oversee the daily involvement of those at the USAO left the investigation in the hands of potential Epstein loyalists,” the report read.
Separately, the report blamed understaffing and institutional dysfunction at the New York federal jail where Epstein died by alleged suicide in August 2019, revealing that guards skipped 12 patrols and three inmate counts, failing to perform the required 30-minute safety checks.
Epstein was being housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center’s (MCC) Special Housing Unit when his cell was left unmonitored for nearly eight hours the night he died.
According to testimony provided to the committee by Tova Noel, a former MCC correctional officer who performed Epstein’s final cell check, the critical lapse was simply “the MCC way”.
The committee’s report defined the jail’s institutional culture as one in which “departures from established policies and procedures had become routine”.
To deliver long-awaited accountability, the Republican-led committee urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to interview or re-interview key witnesses and to investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity. The report includes testimony from a witness who accused two high-profile figures of abuse: former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and French celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai.
“The evidence we uncovered makes clear that the Department of Justice must interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity, and ensure survivors have access to their records,” Comer said in a statement, adding that “Congress must also pass legislation protecting the ability of individuals with knowledge of sexual abuse and survivors to speak freely about these crimes, regardless of nondisclosure agreements”.
The report also dismissed the committee Democrats’ probe into Trump as an “unfounded witch hunt”, saying they were “obsessed with trying to implicate President Trump and insinuate that he was involved in the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell”.
Questions remain about whether the DOJ provided all required records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a measure passed by a near-unanimous Congress and signed into law by US President Donald Trump in November 2025.
The rushed nature of the disclosure led to “deficient redaction” that “exposed sensitive information” belonging to victims, the GOP-led report added.
The panel further recommended measures granting survivors access to unredacted personal files and urged passing the Survivor’s Voice Protection Act to prohibit using non-disclosure agreements to conceal sexual abuse.
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Congressional Republicans are pressing for renewed investigations into sex crimes cases involving disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, accusing authorities of mishandling the case for decades.
The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Tuesday released a new 137-page report marking the most comprehensive investigation yet by lawmakers into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein saga.
The findings condemned federal investigators and prosecutors in South Florida and Washington for alleged negligence, which the committee said allowed the late sex offender’s abuse to go unchecked as far back as 2005, when Epstein’s crimes first came to light in Palm Beach, Florida.
“What we found was both heartbreaking and infuriating,” Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the committee, said in a video address.
“These women endured unimaginable abuse, and the federal government failed them at nearly every turn,” he added. “Had the government done its job, much of this abuse could have been prevented.”
The committee, which currently holds a Republican majority, is the House’s main investigative panel and has the power to subpoena witnesses and documents.
Democrats will take control of the chamber in January after a historic victory in the November 3 midterm elections, and California Representative Robert Garcia, the committee’s top Democrat, formally announced his bid to chair it in a letter to colleagues on Thursday.
The latest findings cap a 15-month Republican-led congressional inquiry that involved 19 transcribed interviews and depositions, subpoenas to federal agencies, financial institutions and Epstein’s estate, and an extensive review of financial records.
Its conclusions asserted that a combination of bureaucratic indifference, missed warnings and compromised plea deals consistently shielded Epstein and his associates while denying justice to their victims.
In one such instance, GOP lawmakers sharply rebuked a controversial 2007 non-prosecution agreement in South Florida that effectively shelved Epstein’s federal case after he pleaded guilty to lesser state offences.
Florida prosecutors, working alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at the time granted him a lenient 18-month sentence alongside extensive work-release privileges, a period during which he continued to abuse women, according to the report.
The panel ascribed the outcomes to “poor judgment” and Epstein’s influence, while flagging potential conflicts of interest involving two former prosecutors, Matthew Menchel and Bruce Reinhart, then employed in the US Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Southern District of Florida.
“Former US Attorney Alexander Acosta’s hands-off approach to the investigation and his failures to oversee the daily involvement of those at the USAO left the investigation in the hands of potential Epstein loyalists,” the report read.
Separately, the report blamed understaffing and institutional dysfunction at the New York federal jail where Epstein died by alleged suicide in August 2019, revealing that guards skipped 12 patrols and three inmate counts, failing to perform the required 30-minute safety checks.
Epstein was being housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center’s (MCC) Special Housing Unit when his cell was left unmonitored for nearly eight hours the night he died.
According to testimony provided to the committee by Tova Noel, a former MCC correctional officer who performed Epstein’s final cell check, the critical lapse was simply “the MCC way”.
The committee’s report defined the jail’s institutional culture as one in which “departures from established policies and procedures had become routine”.
To deliver long-awaited accountability, the Republican-led committee urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to interview or re-interview key witnesses and to investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity. The report includes testimony from a witness who accused two high-profile figures of abuse: former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and French celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai.
“The evidence we uncovered makes clear that the Department of Justice must interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity, and ensure survivors have access to their records,” Comer said in a statement, adding that “Congress must also pass legislation protecting the ability of individuals with knowledge of sexual abuse and survivors to speak freely about these crimes, regardless of nondisclosure agreements”.
The report also dismissed the committee Democrats’ probe into Trump as an “unfounded witch hunt”, saying they were “obsessed with trying to implicate President Trump and insinuate that he was involved in the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell”.
Questions remain about whether the DOJ provided all required records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a measure passed by a near-unanimous Congress and signed into law by US President Donald Trump in November 2025.
The rushed nature of the disclosure led to “deficient redaction” that “exposed sensitive information” belonging to victims, the GOP-led report added.
The panel further recommended measures granting survivors access to unredacted personal files and urged passing the Survivor’s Voice Protection Act to prohibit using non-disclosure agreements to conceal sexual abuse.
Open article →NPRUnited States
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The House Oversight Committee has released a report into its investigation into sex-offender, Jeffrey Epstein. They faulted the federal government for not holding the financier accountable.
Open article →NPRUnited States
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The House Oversight Committee has released a report into its investigation into sex-offender, Jeffrey Epstein. They faulted the federal government for not holding the financier accountable.
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The House Oversight Committee’s review of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein blasted the Justice Department’s handling of the case from the outset and in the decades since, and called for federal investigators to take a closer look at the late sex offender and his associates.
“One thing is abundantly clear in the Epstein matter: the federal government failed over the course of decades and multiple administrations to ensure justice and protect Epstein survivors,” the committee’s Republicans said in a report released Tuesday. “DOJ must make renewed efforts to provide this needed justice and accountability to Epstein survivors.”
“Too many survivors and other witnesses informed this Committee that they were never approached or properly questioned by federal authorities,” the 137-page report continued. “The DOJ should interview or, in some cases, reinterview key individuals who were part of the inner circle of Epstein and Maxwell,” a reference to Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a statement, Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said, “Epstein operated with impunity, shielded and enabled by powerful connections and a justice system that repeatedly failed his victims.”
“The evidence we uncovered makes clear that the Department of Justice must interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity, and ensure survivors have access to their records,” Comer said.
In a statement, a Justice Department spokesperson said, “With all due respect, the Chairman’s recommendations have already been addressed. The Attorney General has repeatedly said that the Epstein case is not closed and there is no statute of limitations on human trafficking.”
“The Department will continue following all additional investigative leads in matters relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Any victims with evidence and information are encouraged to reach out to the FBI,” the statement said.
Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of late Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre , thanked Comer for “his continued efforts to investigate Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators” and echoed the report’s call for the Justice Department to release more documents.
“We know that the names of many perpetrators have not yet been brought to light, including those our sister Virginia Roberts Giuffre was trafficked to, people she reported to the FBI,” they said.
The wealthy and politically connected Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
He’d previously been investigated on charges he sexually abused dozens of women and girls over a decade earlier, but cut a deal with federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to plead guilty to state charges involving a single underage victim.
The deal resulted in Epstein serving 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail, where he was allowed to leave almost daily through a work-release program and have his own private security detail . He could have faced up to life behind bars had he been convicted in a federal complaint that was shelved as a result of the deal.
The Justice Department and FBI said in a joint memo last year that Epstein had preyed on more than 1,000 victims, but the only other person to be charged in the case was Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy charges in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison term.
That joint memo said there was no evidence showing that other people should be charged in the investigation, and despite earlier vows to the contrary from top administration officials, no further information about Epstein’s case would be released.
The political backlash to that memo led to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), a law the mandated that documents related to the case be made public. Millions of pages of documents have been released, but some are still being withheld or were released with what critics have said are too many redactions .
“Despite extraordinary efforts undertaken by DOJ staff to expedite the release of EFTA records, questions remain as to whether the DOJ has released all relevant documents,” the report released Tuesday said.
The Republican report chided the department for releasing names of some victims in documents that it said should have been redacted , while redacting the names of Epstein allies who it said should have been identified.
“These failures underscore the importance of meaningfully engaging with and working alongside victims to ensure their privacy is protected and their concerns are considered before sensitive records are released,” the report said. “Survivors of the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell also continue to ask the DOJ for their own means of accessing their personal files and documents. As of this report, DOJ has not permitted that to occur.”
The House report said one way Epstein was able to operate was by getting his victims to sign nondisclosure agreements.
The report called for Congress to “pass legislation protecting the ability of individuals with knowledge of sexual abuse and survivors to speak freely about these crimes, regardless of nondisclosure agreements.”
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, said in a statement that the Republican investigation was “incomplete,” and that Democrats will continue the probe when they take the majority in January.
Comer held “zero public hearings” on Epstein, and DOJ “continues to illegally withhold over 2.5 million pages of documents,” Garcia said.
“We will not allow the President and his allies to dismiss this investigation,” Garcia said. “We intend to hold real public hearings uplifting survivors and asking tough questions of the powerful men who associated with Epstein, including Donald Trump. Our work is just getting started.”
Democrats on the committee released their own report last month that called for an independent special counsel to investigate Epstein’s ties to President Donald Trump.
The two had a social relationship that ended before Epstein was first hit with criminal charges. The Democratic report alleged the Justice Department worked to cover up Trump’s connections to Epstein, and said an independent special counsel is necessary because Attorney General Todd Blanche was compromised because he was Trump’s personal attorney before joining the administration.
Blanche has defended the Justice Department against the criticisms that it took too long to release the files and mishandled redactions, saying, “You’re talking about working through 6 million pieces of paper.”
The White House said the allegations in the Democratic report were untrue and politically motivated. Trump has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s criminal activity and said he had a falling out with Epstein because he thought he was a “creep.”
The Republican report ripped Democrats for focusing on Trump in their own findings, saying they were “obsessed” with the president and had engaged in an “unfounded witch hunt.”
Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Tanish Bijur is an intern on the Justice and National Security Unit
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