The Trump administration is seemingly pulling out all the stops to get out of releasing the remaining Epstein Files.
On Friday, Trump’s Department of Justice quietly filed a motion to block Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s request for an independent monitor to oversee the release of Epstein Files in the closed case against Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a new motion, the DOJ urged Judge Paul A. Engelmayer to reject the request, stating that the court had no authority to approve it because neither Khanna nor Massie were involved in the criminal case against Maxwell that landed her behind bars.
Khanna and Massie filed an amici curiae brief, typically done by individuals who are not parties in a case, with Engelmayer on Jan. 8. Engelmayer previously ordered the unsealing of grand jury materials in the Maxwell case in order to comply with ongoing release of investigative materials related to Epstein.
The letter was sent in an effort to push the Justice Department to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the congressmen co-sponsored. The DOJ argued that the representatives were overreaching with their request to appoint an independent monitor to compel the release of documents.
In their initial filing, Reps. Khanna and Massie stated that they had “urgent and grave concerns about DOJ’s failure to comply with the Act as well as the Department’s violations of this Court’s order.” The Justice Department admitted earlier this month that it still had not released over 2 million documents related to Epstein.
In response to the new filing from the DOJ, Khanna told the Associated Press that the department “misconstrued” his request.
“We are informing the Court of serious misconduct by the Department of Justice that requires a remedy, one we believe this Court has the authority to provide, and which victims themselves have requested,” Khanna said in a statement to AP.
The Daily Beast reached out to the DOJ, Khanna, and Massie for comment.
This latest development comes as lawmakers and the public have questioned the slow progress with and heavy redactions in the Epstein Files. The DOJ missed a key deadline to explain its redactions on Jan. 3, which was also the day that Trump executed an attack on Venezuela and captured its president.
“We are sure it’s just a coincidence, but today is the statutory date for the DOJ to explain its redactions in the Epstein file productions,” the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee wrote in an X post following the military operation in Venezuela. “We have not forgotten, and we won’t let up—regardless of the President’s new unconstitutional actions.”
The Southern District of New York charged Epstein with sex trafficking in 2019. However, the disgraced financier was found dead of an “apparent suicide” in his Manhattan jail cell shortly after he was indicted. Maxwell was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking underage girls for Epstein.
The DOJ received backlash after Maxwell was transferred to a cushy, minimum-security prison last year. The department was accused of giving Maxwell preferential treatment as Trump entertained the idea of giving the convicted sex offender a pardon.
