Trump DOJ Files Bonkers Motion to Keep Epstein Files Sealed
The Justice Department claims Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s request for an independent monitor is an overreach.
The Trump administration appears to be doing everything in its power to prevent the release of the remaining Epstein files.
On Friday, the Trump Justice Department secretly filed a motion to block Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s request to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the release of the Epstein files in the closed case against Ghislaine Maxwell.
In the motion, the Justice Department urged Judge Paul A. Engelmayer to reject the request, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to grant it, as Khanna and Massie were not parties to the criminal proceedings against Maxwell that led to her imprisonment.
Khanna and Massie had filed a brief with Judge Engelmayer on January 8, a document typically submitted by individuals not involved in the case.
Judge Engelmayer had previously ordered the declassification of the grand jury documents in the Maxwell case, in accordance with the existing release order concerning the Epstein investigation materials.
The letter was intended to pressure the Justice Department to comply with the Epstein Transparency Act, which the two congressmen co-authored. The Justice Department countered that the congressmen’s request to appoint an independent monitor to compel the department to release the documents exceeded its authority.
In their initial complaint, Representatives Khanna and Massie stated they were “deeply and urgently concerned by the Justice Department’s failure to comply with the law, as well as violations of this court order.” The Justice Department admitted earlier this month that it still had not released more than two million documents related to Epstein.
In response to the Justice Department’s new complaint, Khanna told The Associated Press that the department had “misinterpreted” his request.
“We are informing the court of a serious misconduct by the Justice Department that warrants corrective action, which we believe this court is authorized to take and which the victims themselves have demanded,” Khanna said in a statement to The Associated Press.
This news comes as lawmakers and the public question the slow handling of the Epstein cases and the mass suppression of documents. The U.S. Justice Department missed the January 3 deadline for explaining the suppression of the Epstein files, the very day Trump launched an offensive against Venezuela and arrested its president.
“We are certain this is a coincidence, but today is the legal deadline for the Justice Department to explain the suppression of the Epstein files,” the House Oversight Committee Democrats wrote in a post on X following the military operation in Venezuela. “We have not forgotten and we will not give up, no matter what further unconstitutional actions the president takes.”
Epstein was indicted by the Southern District of New York for sex trafficking in 2019. The disgraced financier was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell shortly after his indictment, in what appeared to be a suicide. Maxwell was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking minors for Epstein.
The Justice Department faced sharp criticism after transferring Maxwell to a more comfortable and less secure prison last year. It was accused of giving Maxwell preferential treatment while Trump was considering pardoning her.
