Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing the federal government to provide all of its records on Jeffrey Epstein’s contacts with foreign governments, pursuant to an inquiry he launched Tuesday into whether the convicted sex offender had acted as an unregistered foreign agent.
It’s perhaps a preview of House Democrats’ plans for next year if they take back the House majority in the November midterm elections. Raskin could assume the House Judiciary Committee gavel as soon as January, giving him the broad subpoena powers necessary to capitalize on an investigation.
“Jeffrey Epstein never registered as a foreign agent,” Raskin wrote in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence. “Yet numerous recently released documents now show he acted aggressively on behalf of multiple foreign governments, including several with interests adverse to the United States, in order to influence policies of the first Trump Administration.”
Raskin has little power to pull together a full-scale investigation while his party remains in the minority.
But he could yet succeed in dragging Epstein back into the mainstream. Last year, the public backlash after the White House announced it was shelving its investigation on Epstein’s contacts threatened to engulf the administration, leading Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to successfully force a House vote that resulted in a release of the files.
The White House “absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files,” Vice President JD Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan last week.
In his Tuesday letter, Raskin alleged that Epstein had offered to serve as a conduit between Saudi Arabia and members of the Trump administration, consulted with Russian officials on engaging with the president and advised former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“An unrepentant global sex trafficker who described himself as the ‘best friend’ of the President for many years interacted with foreign governments at the highest levels and offered them advice on how to deal with the President and influence his Administration,” Raskin wrote.
It’s not illegal to lobby on behalf of a foreign government, but it’s a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act not to register as a foreign agent.
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