Committee staff report accuses DOJ of suppressing evidence in FBI’s Epstein files

Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday called on Attorney General Todd Blanche to appoint a special counsel to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators. The committee made the request while releasing a 53-page staff report that probes the alleged links between the late financier and President Donald Trump and accuses the president’s Department of Justice of systematically suppressing evidence in the FBI’s “Epstein Files.”

The report is titled “We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey.” Ranking committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in a statement that “Donald Trump says he knew Jeffrey Epstein ‘just like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,’” adding: “Not exactly. Evidence involving 11 women tells a completely different and far more damning story about their relationship and the abuse of young women and girls that took place in their network.”

Raskin urged Blanche to appoint a special counsel to dig into the matter. In the same statement, he said, “The women who survived Epstein deserve to be heard, Congress must have the complete files required by law, and an independent special counsel must investigate Epstein’s co-conspirators and DOJ’s cover-up and ensure that state and foreign prosecutors have the evidence they need to pursue justice.”

The request reaches two subjects at once: the network around Epstein and the Justice Department’s handling of the FBI’s files. Raskin tied the appointment to Congress’s access to the complete files required by law and to state and foreign prosecutors’ need for evidence to pursue justice, and he described the investigator he wants as independent.

The report lists five women who have “directly accused Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein’s company or presence,” and three others who described “encounters in which Epstein or Maxwell appeared to offer women to Trump or indicate that Trump was ‘in’ on Epstein’s abuse.” According to the report, the accounts and stories, “when told together, paint an unmistakable picture of a conspiracy to abuse and traffic women.”

The report’s body of alleged evidence also details what its authors call a “shared world built around young models” in the 1990s, when “both men moved through New York modeling agencies, pageants and parties where young women and girls were recruited and often exploited.”

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s sex crimes. He has asserted that the two former friends became estranged long ago and that he subsequently banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.

White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said, “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees.” She said, “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”

Leavitt had made a similar accusation last year, when House Democrats released emails between Epstein and convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell that mentioned Trump. At the time, she accused the lawmakers of trying “to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”

The committee’s report and the White House’s response set out different accounts of the same relationship. The report alleges that the Justice Department suppressed evidence in the FBI’s files, and the White House says Trump ended his association with Epstein decades ago by expelling him from his club. The White House’s response did not address the evidence involving 11 women.

Whether Blanche appoints a special counsel, and whether Congress obtains the complete files Raskin says it is owed, remain unsettled.