New Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata largely ‘recycled’, Democrat says

Rep. Summer season Lee, D-Pa., in a assertion on Saturday criticized the discharge of the primary trove of paperwork associated to the late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein as incomplete and predominately “recycled content material already made obtainable to the general public.”

Lee, a member of the Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform, final month filed the movement to compel President Donald Trump’s Justice Division to launch recordsdata associated to Epstein.

The Justice Division gave Congress the primary batch of paperwork on Friday, to adjust to a subpoena issued by the committee earlier this month.

However Lee stated Saturday that simply three p.c of the 33,295 pages of paperwork turned over to Congress contained new info, in response to Oversight Committee Democrats’ preliminary evaluate.

“The remaining 97% of pages included info beforehand launched by the Division of Justice, the Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement or the Palm Seashore County State Legal professional’s workplace,” Lee stated within the assertion.

It wasn’t instantly clear what info the paperwork contained and what, or how a lot, was redacted.

Lee stated that the one new disclosure within the tranche of paperwork was fewer than 1,000 pages of flight location logs of Epstein’s aircraft from 2000 by 2014.

“Trump’s DOJ is pretending to reply to the subpoena,” she stated within the assertion. “The launched Epstein paperwork are largely 1000’s of pages of recycled content material already made obtainable to the general public.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the rating member on the Home Oversight Committee, additionally slammed the preliminary doc launch.

“DOJ’s restricted disclosure raises extra questions than solutions and makes clear that the White Home is just not fascinated by justice for the victims or the reality,” Garcia stated in a assertion posted on X on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Republican Home Oversight Committee stated Friday that “the manufacturing accommodates 1000’s of pages of paperwork.”

“The Committee intends to make these information public after thorough evaluate to guarantee any victims’ identification and baby sexual abuse materials are redacted,” the spokesperson stated.

The Epstein recordsdata have been a thorn in Republicans’ aspect in current weeks as many Republicans — together with a few of Trump’s strongest supporters — have repeatedly urged the administration to observe by on its marketing campaign promise and launch paperwork linked to the case.

The discharge of the preliminary batch of recordsdata to Congress on Friday got here on the identical day that the Justice Division launched new transcripts from its interview final month with Epstein’s confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell, who’s at the moment serving a 20-year jail sentence, advised Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche that she didn’t know of any wrongdoing by Trump in reference to Epstein, in response to the transcripts, which additionally present that she praised the president.