Release of the DOJ’s Epstein files is just the beginning: lawmakers

A new law passed required that the Justice Department release all of the investigation documents associated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by Friday, but according to Democratic lawmakers, that won't be the end of the story.

NOTUS reported Thursday that lawmakers say they're waiting to review the DOJ documents before they decide on next steps.

“There’s so many different things that could happen,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calf.), the ranking member on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

He noted that he has concerns that the administration might try to hide further documents from the public.

“Ideally, they release everything. I highly doubt that’s going to happen,” he said. “But post Friday, everything has to be on the table. And so the legal approach absolutely has to be on the table, and then the Senate’s already talking about that. So we would like to see what actually happens. And so I think we’re preparing ourselves. Our team’s ready. We’re ready to review what comes out. Everyone knows, everybody’s going to be working for the weekend, and we’re ready to go.”

NOTUS reported that many Democrats believe the Trump administration will withhold some documents.

Garcia said that lawmakers may be able to cross-check the DOJ documents with the Epstein estate files.

"What are they releasing? What are they not releasing? I think that will be interesting for us, but we’re going to be releasing more photos and more documents from the estate that the DOJ may or may not have, so that will, that will continue,” Garcia said.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told the reporters that he is concerned they won't know what is missing since they never had access to the totality of the information to begin with.

“I’m skeptical that they [the administration] will release all of the files,” Subramanyam continued. “They haven’t answered any questions about what they think the Epstein files are. I don’t quite know how they define the Epstein files right now, or whether they’ve tampered with them in any way, or whether they will selectively release files.”

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-Minn.) told NOTUS that lawmakers may have to rely on Epstein's survivors to fill some information gaps.

She alleged, “We will know if they have omitted any files.”

“We can expect that if the files are fully released, there will be a mountain of evidence of both criminal and civil liability against individuals who were never prosecuted,” Stansbury said. “It’s likely that if that is the case that there will be legal ramifications for individuals that are exposed to have been complicit in crimes, and I think it will also help shed insight as to why the U.S. government did not prosecute the case.”

For the past two weeks, House Oversight Democrats have released photos from a trove of 95,000 images that came from the Epstein estate. The first batch had a number of photos of Epstein with famous people in filmmaking, Wall Street and politics. The second batch features a number of photos of quotes from the book "Lolita" written on the skin of an individual.

Trump and his administration deny any wrongdoing.

Read the full report here.