A congressional panel has released more than 33,000 pages of documents tied to the federal investigation into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The House Oversight Committee, led by Republican Chairman James Comer, made the documents public on Tuesday after securing them from the Department of Justice (DOJ) through a subpoena last month. The release includes jail surveillance video, flight logs, court filings, audio recordings and emails connected to Epstein’s activities and associates.
Despite the scale of the disclosure, lawmakers from both parties agreed the files add little to the public record. “As far as I can see, there’s nothing new in the documents,” Comer told NBC News. Democrats on the panel echoed the sentiment, with ranking member Robert Garcia saying 97 percent of the files were already public. “There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims,” he said.
Among the material is more than 13 hours of surveillance video from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, recorded the night of Epstein’s death in August 2019. The footage runs longer than the version previously released by the Justice Department, but it still omits the so-called “missing minute” that has fueled conspiracy theories about Epstein’s apparent suicide. Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the time gap was due to the jail’s camera system resetting.
The cache also contains 2006 video interviews with alleged Epstein victims—faces blurred and names redacted—describing sexual abuse during supposed massage appointments. Other recordings show Palm Beach police searching one of Epstein’s Florida homes during the initial criminal investigation nearly two decades ago.
Democratic Rep. Summer Lee noted that the only new material appeared to be flight records obtained from US Customs and Border Protection. These logs document Epstein’s travel to and from his private island in the US Virgin Islands. Epstein’s connections to high-profile figures—including former President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Britain’s Prince Andrew—remain a point of public scrutiny, though the documents do not reveal fresh links.
The release has revived calls for more transparency. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, is pushing legislation that would require the DOJ to make all Epstein files public within 30 days. “People want these files released,” Massie said. “It’s not the biggest issue in the country…but you really can’t solve any of that if this place is corrupt.”
Earlier in the day, House Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the committee met privately with six Epstein victims. “There were tears in the room,” Johnson said, while Rep. Nancy Mace left the meeting in tears. Democrat Melanie Stansbury called the broader case a “cover-up of epic proportions.”
Lawmakers and Epstein’s victims are expected to hold a press conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
Epstein, who once mingled with global elites, died in jail while facing federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. His longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding his abuse of underage girls.
