House Oversight Chair: DOJ to begin turning over Jeffrey Epstein records on Friday

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said Monday the Department of Justice will begin providing Jeffrey Epstein–related records to the committee on Friday, following a subpoena with a deadline of August 19.

The announcement came as former Attorney General Bill Barr appeared on Capitol Hill for a closed-door deposition about matters related to Epstein. Comer told reporters Barr reiterated that Epstein died by suicide and that he had no conversations with President Donald Trump about any “client list,” adding he’d seen nothing implicating Trump. Barr did not comment publicly before or after his appearance.

Republicans have pushed for broader transparency around the case, while Democrats questioned the sincerity of the GOP’s probe. Rep. Jasmine Crockett said it appears Republicans are “going through the motions,” and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam argued Democrats are doing “most of the heavy lifting.”

In 2023, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General issued a scathing report detailing Bureau of Prisons failures that contributed to Epstein’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, but found no evidence contradicting the absence of criminality in his death.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed until September a full House vote on publicly releasing DOJ’s Epstein files, saying he supports transparency but wants to give the administration time to manage the process.

The Oversight Committee has also subpoenaed nine additional witnesses for private depositions between August and mid-October: former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, and Alberto Gonzales; former FBI Director James Comey; former special counsel and FBI Director Robert Mueller III; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and former President Bill Clinton.

Credit: CNN Newsource

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