House Republicans Say Decades of Federal Failures Let Epstein Keep Abusing, Urge New Probe of Witnesses

In brief

• The House Oversight Committee, led by Republicans, has released a final report criticizing federal handling of the Epstein and Maxwell cases.
• The report says federal failures allowed Epstein's crimes to continue after 2005 and urges the Justice Department to re-question key witnesses.
• Democrats on the committee called the report misleading and incomplete.

Committee findings

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Tuesday published its final report on the federal handling of the criminal cases against financier Jeffrey Epstein and his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell (House Republican report on Jeffrey Epstein rips Justice Department, urges further investigation – NBCNews.com) (US federal authorities could have prevented Epstein crimes, report finds – BBC News). Committee Republicans said the government failed over several administrations to secure justice for Epstein's victims and called on the Justice Department to make renewed efforts (House Republicans urge DoJ to further investigate ‘key witnesses’ in Epstein case – The Guardian). The panel's chairman, James Comer of Kentucky, said the federal government had failed the survivors of the pair's crimes for decades (House Oversight calls on DOJ to interview key Epstein witnesses, says govt. ‘failed’ survivors – CNBC).

Where the probe went wrong

The report says that, instead of fully pursuing allegations in other states, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida reached an agreement with Epstein in 2007 that shielded him from federal prosecution. According to the committee, some of those failures reflected poor judgment, while others appeared to stem from Epstein's wide-reaching influence. Many survivors and other witnesses told the committee that federal authorities never approached them or questioned them properly.

Recommendations

The committee urged federal prosecutors to question central witnesses again, look into Epstein associates accused of wrongdoing, and give survivors access to their own records. Comer also pressed Congress to pass legislation he introduced that would protect witnesses and survivors. The committee's Republicans accused several Epstein associates of lying about their knowledge of the abuse (House Republicans Accuse Epstein Associates Of Lying About Not Knowing Abuse – Forbes).

Democratic response

Democrats on the panel criticized the report as misleading and incomplete, arguing that gaps in the investigation undermine its conclusions.

Background

The committee's findings rest on 15 months of interviews, depositions, government files and bank records.