US Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York, speaks throughout a information convention calling on the Trump administration to launch additional data on the Jeffrey Epstein case, on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2025.
Oliver Contreras | AFP | Getty Pictures
A bunch of Senate Democrats on Wednesday cited an obscure law to ask the Justice Division at hand over felony investigative files associated to intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by Aug. 15.
The request is the series salvo in an effort by Democrats and a few Republicans in Congress to press the Trump administration to launch the so-called Epstein information after reneging on its earlier guarantees to take action.
Eight senators signed a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi searching for the information; Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and all seven Democrats who sit on the committee.
The letter cites a piece of federal legislation that claims that an government company shall submit “any data requested of it referring to any matter inside the jurisdiction of the committee” when sought by “any 5 members” of the Senate Governmental Affairs panel.
“After missteps and failed guarantees by your Division concerning these information, it’s important that the Trump Administration present full transparency,” the letter mentioned.
The letter notes that in 2024, President Donald Trump, whereas campaigning for the White Home, mentioned in a social media publish that he would declassify the Epstein information.
“When requested once more whether or not he would launch an Epstein shopper listing, President Trump acknowledged, ‘Yeah, I might definitely check out it. […] I might be inclined to do the Epstein. I might don’t have any downside with it,’ ” the letter mentioned.
“Shortly after changing into Legal professional Basic, you indicated that the Epstein shopper listing was ‘sitting on my desk proper now to assessment.’ “
A Justice Division spokeswoman confirmed the division had obtained the letter, however declined to touch upon it.
Trump and Bondi, for weeks, have been criticized for the Justice Division’s choice to not launch the information regardless of prior guarantees.
The Justice Division, to not less than mitigate a few of that backlash, has requested a number of federal judges to launch the transcripts of grand jury testimony collected to generate felony indictments of Epstein and his confederate, Ghislaine Maxwell. On Tuesday night time, the Justice Division laid out its courtroom filings its justifications for searching for the discharge of the testimony.
“There may be undoubtedly a clearly expressed curiosity from the general public in Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes,” the filings in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan mentioned.
However these grand jury transcripts will not be anticipated to comprise wherever near the quantity of knowledge within the Epstein case information held by the Justice Division.
Epstein died in August 2019 in a federal jail, weeks after being charged with baby intercourse trafficking. Maxwell is serving a 20-year jail time period after being convicted in 2021 of grooming underage women for Epstein to abuse.
Trump on Tuesday instructed reporters that Epstein “stole” several workers from the spa of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, which led to a falling out between the 2 males.
A kind of staff was Virginia Giuffre, who up to now mentioned that she was noticed by Maxwell whereas working on the membership at age 17, after which recruited to work for, and be abused by, Epstein and different males.
Giuffre died by suicide in April.