Justice Department watchdog to investigate handling of Epstein files

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is launching an investigation into the DOJ’s production of files and documents related to Jeffrey Epstein as controversy continues over the handling of the case of the convicted sex offender.

The Inspector General will focus on “the DOJ’s identification, collection, and production of responsive material,” it said in a statement Thursday, as well as “processes for redacting and withholding material” and how the Justice Department addressed issues following the release of Epstein documents.

The vast files collected throughout investigations related to Epstein were ordered to be released by Congress in a law that passed late last year. Some members of Congress have ridiculed the Justice Department for over-redactions and tracking their searches as they went through unredacted versions of the material.

“Men need to be perp-walked in handcuffs to the jail, and until we see that here in this country … we don’t have a system of justice that’s working,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who co-sponored the Epstein document law, told the BBC in March.

Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November after repeated failures from the Justice Department to deliver on past promises that they would be releasing information on Epstein – even material it did not have, like the long-fabled list of contacts and co-conspirators that now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed was on her desk ready to be released early last year. No such list has been produced and the Justice Department has not charged anyone beyond Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Bondi was fired by President Donald Trump early this year in part because of her continued bungling of the Epstein investigation.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in his new role leading the department after Bondi’s ousting, argued during a press conference this month that the new DOJ under Trump’s second term “has been a lot more transparent” than past administrations.

But Blanche has also tried to hurry the Epstein scandal to the dustbin of history.

“I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” Blanche said in an interview with Fox News earlier this year.

“I’m not sure you totally get what people feel about that,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said later over Blanche’s answers to questions related to Epstein.

The DOJ’s Inspector General previously found that, after an investigation, Epstein killed himself in a jail cell in 2019. Maxwell, his longtime business partner, is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in conspiring with Epstein to procure minors for him to sexually abuse.

Blanche also met with Maxwell last year in Florida. She was given limited immunity so that she could discuss her criminal case, but did not promise any other benefits in exchange for her testimony, according to a transcript released by the Justice Department.

However, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp shortly after the interview was completed. DOJ has said there’s no connection between Blanche’s meeting and her transfer.

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