Congress has officially received the first batch of Jeffrey Epstein files.
The Justice Department turned over a tranche of materials related to the case against the late, convicted sex offender Friday afternoon, according to a person aware of the development and granted anonymity to share private information.
These documents — transmitted in compliance with a subpoena issued earlier this month by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — represent only a portion of what DOJ has in its possession and it’s not immediately clear what sort of information lawmakers currently have available to them. The documents are expected to have heavy redactions.
The Oversight Committee now plans to review the materials, with both Democrats and Republicans having access. While under a typical arrangement, the majority — in this case Republicans — would control its disclosure, either party could release the materials unilaterally.
Committee Republicans have pledged to coordinate with the Justice Department to protect the identities of victims and ensure certain details do not complicate ongoing criminal matters.
Democrats also intend to review the files before releasing them publicly, according to a person familiar with Oversight Democrats’ planning, speaking on condition of anonymity to share party strategy.
There’s no current time estimate for when the public will be able to see the files.
The Epstein saga has brought together strange bedfellows in Congress. Democrats sought to stoke divisions among Donald Trump’s base over the administration’s initial decision to withhold much of the information in the Epstein case after the president’s allies for years clamored for the release of the files. Meanwhile, many Republicans called the administration’s perceived about-face an affront to earlier promises of bringing transparency around the charges against Epstein, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019.
The House Oversight subpoena for the Epstein files was the culmination of this unlikely bipartisan partnership, where committee Democrats were able to get enough Republicans to join them in a surprise vote to force the release of the DOJ materials.
The Justice Department’s compliance, however, is unlikely to satisfy clamoring for a more expansive unsealing of the documents, with plans from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to force a floor vote on their resolution to compel the full release of the Epstein files soon after Congress returns Sept. 2 from its month-long recess.
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