The congressional probe into the Jeffrey Epstein case now appears to be caught in the crossfires of the government shutdown.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s monthslong investigation into the late convicted sex offender and disgraced financier has been largely put on pause as employees across the federal government are put on furloughs.
Two people granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics say that committee investigators have not heard from DOJ around the subpoena since federal funding lapsed Oct. 1, grinding to a halt what had until that point been a modest stream of information flowing between the agency and Capitol Hill thanks to a congressional subpoena.
Oversight Democrats have reached out for more information from DOJ and received no response, according to one of the two people. And now, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the panel’s top, is openly accusing the department of slow-walking.
“Despite multiple requests from Committee staff for an accounting of materials still within DOJ’s possession or plans to produce additional materials, DOJ has failed to provide any substantive or insightful information as to when the Committee may expect further productions of documents,” Garcia wrote in a letter Thursday to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Garcia’s letter made no mention of what effect the shutdown could be having on DOJ operations but a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed this was the cause of the communication breakdown.
“The Democrats have shut down the government and Congressional correspondence during a lapse in appropriations is limited. We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the Committee in pursuit of transparency … once the Democrats stop playing games with taxpayer dollars and vote to re-open the government,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The delays are the latest chapter in the political quagmire the Epstein case has created on Capitol Hill.
Democrats have for months tried to leverage President Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein to stoke divisions among the MAGA base and argue the administration is reneging on its promises of transparency in the matter.
Speaker Mike Johnson has also been working to quell an insurgent effort among lawmakers to force a floor vote that would compel the Justice Department to oversee a wholesale release of materials in the Epstein case. Democrats say a desire among GOP leadership to avoid such an outcome is the reason Johnson refuses to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who would be the 218th signer on the discharge petition to bring up the bill.
House GOP leaders have repeatedly brandished the Oversight probe as the appropriate vehicle to obtain information related to the Epstein case, and DOJ has been somewhat responsive since being slapped with the subpoena. But Democrats — along with rank-and-file Republicans — have complained that the department is transmitting information too slowly, and in piecemeal fashion, and that much of the material that has been sent to Hill investigators so far represents information that has previously been made public.
Garcia argued in his letter Thursday that the administration had refused “for nearly two months to provide substantive information regarding progress producing files relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” adding, “the only production of documents by DOJ consisted almost entirely of documents that were either already public or in the Committee’s possession.”
The Justice Department has not handed over any information to the Oversight Committee since Aug. 22. Republican leadership says lawmakers must give the agency time to responsibly release materials without jeopardizing the privacy of Epstein’s victims. But the Justice Department has not provided any insight into when the committee can expect more information, Garcia said.
Garcia also questioned Bondi on why her department had not responded to questions over why Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was given what he called “preferential treatment” by the Bureau of Prisons. Maxwell was relocated from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum security prison camp in Texas shortly after she sat for an interview with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, where she said she had no recollection of Trump’s involvement in inappropriate situations with Epstein.
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