Legal expert rips DOJ's Epstein files delay: 'The law is not so optional'

16 January

Footage of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-a-Lago in the 1990s (Image: Screengrab via NBC News)

As the Department of Justice continues to blow past its deadline to disclose all of its files related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig stressed that the department's handling of the disclosure is firmly in violation of Congress, and that "the law is not so optional.

Following months of pressure from victims and advocates, and in the face of pushback from Donald Trump, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed in November, 428-1 in the House, and by unanimous consent in the Senate. The bill called for the DOJ to release all of its files on the investigation into the deceased sex offender by Dec. 19, but as of Friday, it has released only about 1 percent of them, and many with heavy redactions. The department has since claimed to have uncovered millions more documents and has given no timeline for when they will all be released.

During a Friday appearance on CNN, Honig, a former assistant US attorney, explained that there is no possible interpretation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that could allow for the way the DOJ has slow-walked the disclosure process.

"The law was not so optional, not so forgiving," Honig said. "So this was a law, let's remember, passed 427-to-1 in the House, unanimously in the Senate, and then signed by President Trump on Nov. 19. The law said that DOJ 'shall,' not 'may,' 'shall produce all documents,' not 'some,' not just get started within 30 days. That 30-day point hit on Dec. 1. We did get tens of thousands of documents on Dec. 19, but apparently that was a minuscule fraction of the total amount. Even now, as you said, it's not even clear."

He continued: "DOJ knows how far they are into their production. They're giving us these very low single-digit percentage numbers. And so you can understand why these victims are frustrated... Here we are a month out, and DOJ has at most given us a [small] percentage of the total amount. When the law said they had to give it to us all about a month ago."

A group of Epstein survivors is now calling on the DOJ's inspector general to do something about this delay, but Honig admitted that, given the evident disinterest in the matter from Trump and the department, their options are limited.

"So the victims have asked the Department of Justice inspector general to now do something about this," Hoing explained. "It's sort of an odd choice, but I can't think of a better one for the victims. Given that Congress and the president seem to have very little interest in enforcing this bill that they passed and signed. So OIG, the office of the inspector general, is really an internal DOJ watchdog. Usually, that person investigates internal fraud, waste, abuse or misconduct. So there is substantial internal investigative power there, but a couple important limits."

He continued: "First of all, all that the Justice Department watchdog can really do is issue a report, is issue pen and paper. They can make referrals, they can make references, but they can't force DOJ to do anything. Second of all, it's not entirely clear that the inspector general will accept this incoming request. I mean, they do get requests all the time. And the IG, the inspector general, will have to decide, is this in our purview? Is this even something we can really dig into?"

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