When Congress reconvenes for its lame duck session on Monday (Nov. 9), a key agenda item could finally break Donald Trump’s stone wall covering up thousands of Justice Department Epstein files.
The push comes on the heels of a new 50-page report released by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee that makes a damning case against Trump for his alleged involvement with Epstein and documents the Department of Justice’s effort to cover it up.
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The report details allegations by 11 women who said Trump sexually abused them when they were underage. Five of the women say they were raped or sexually assaulted in the close presence of Epstein.
Separately, Larissa Portnoff, a New York clinical psychologist, presented some of the most compelling testimony yet that Trump sexually abused her starting when she was eight years old. The abuse and rapes continued until she was in her mid-teens.
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Model and former Miss Switzerland Beatrice Keul also went public for the first time, alleging Trump raped her in 1993. The attack occurred inside a Plaza Hotel suite in Manhattan when she was 24 years old.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif) are only two signatures short of authorizing a discharge petition to force a vote on the “Epstein Files Transparency Act II.”
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You may recall, a discharge petition led to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. President Trump reluctantly signed the measure into law in November a year ago.
The landmark law required the Attorney General to release all unclassified DOJ, FBI, and U.S. Attorney records concerning Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and associates in 30 days. It also limited redactions to only victims.
After missing the strict statutory deadline, the administration massively released 3.5 million files that were heavily redacted. In some cases, however, victims’ names and even nude images were exposed
The Justice Department is withholding more than an estimated 3 million additional files and has fought off all efforts so far to release them. The government has stone walled a state investigation in New Mexico and nine overseas investigations, triggering the current bipartisan congressional push for stricter enforcement.
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It’s also gone so far as to ignore court orders in a civil suit filed by lawyer and investigative journalist Katie Phang to keep from releasing the documents.
The new Epstein Act is significant because of the rights it extends to victims and to states to pursue cases against Epstein perpetrators.
Abuse survivors, state attorneys general, and lawmakers will have the ability to sue the DOJ in federal court over unreleased files or non-compliance with the law.
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It will also give state attorneys general full access to unredacted files to investigate and prosecute co-conspirators and gives survivors direct access to their own withheld FBI testimonies and records.
As things now stand, the discharge petition has been signed by 216 out of the 218 required signitures it needs to force a floor vote. The signatories include 213 Democrats and 3 Republicans.
Specifically, the new legislation strips the Department of Justice of common-law privileges (such as deliberative process and attorney-client privilege) to prevent them from withholding or heavily redacting records.
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It allows survivors, lawmakers, and state attorneys general to sue the DOJ in federal court for non-compliance.
The measure will make unredacted investigative files available to state attorneys general so they can prosecute co-conspirators or individuals who assisted in Epstein’s sex trafficking network.
Survivors will also be able to directly access their own investigative testimonies, FD-302 files, and records currently withheld by the FBI.
If Republicans are able to keep the Epstein Act II bottled up during the lame duck session, things will almost certainly change in January when the new Congress is sworn in.
Democrats will control both the House and the Senate by wide margins as a result of the midterm elections. Resolving the Epstein scandal is high on their agenda.
Trump’s links to Epstein, at this point, are indisputable. His name surfaced more than 30,000 times in the first round of released documents and lawmakers suspect the most damning evidence is being withheld by the Justice Department.
Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”