The Republican-led House Oversight Committee slammed the Trump administration on Tuesday for botching the public release of millions of pages of records relating to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In a report scrutinizing the government’s handling of criminal investigations of Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, the committee faulted President Donald Trump and the Justice Department for reneging on a promise to open the files, which led Congress to pass a law forcing their release.
After Congress stepped in, the administration missed disclosure deadlines and concealed names of alleged co-conspirators while failing to adequately protect victims, “including through deficient redactions that exposed their sensitive information,” the report said.
The 137-page report, released by the GOP-controlled committee, comes nearly a year after Congress passed and Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the Justice Department to publicly disclose records relating to the late sex offender, many of which were previously confidential. The report also comes on the heels of last week’s midterm elections, when Republicans suffered heavy House losses in failing to hold their majority after a campaign where the release of government records related to Epstein became a recurring campaign issue.
“The Trump administration has repeatedly committed to releasing Epstein-related files,” the report said. “However, multiple shortcomings related to releasing documents and failures to adequately communicate about those releases plagued the DOJ’s efforts.”
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