DOJ watchdog investigates document release

Ministry of JusticeThe internal watchdog on Thursday said it is investigating the Justice Department’s compliance with a law requiring full disclosure of department files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Audit made by Office of Inspector General It comes after months of complaints that the Justice Department was withholding many of its files from complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

“Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the Department of Justice’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act,” Deputy Inspector General William Blier said in a statement. he said.

“If circumstances warrant, OIG will consider addressing other issues that may arise during the audit,” Blier said. he said.

The OIG “will issue a public report containing the audit results once our work is completed,” he said.

“It shouldn’t have taken this long to begin holding the US Department of Justice accountable, but this audit will bring a long-awaited temporary sense of relief to many Epstein victims,” attorney Brittany Henderson, who along with partner Brad Edwards has represented more than 100 Epstein victims, said in a statement to MS Now.

“We can only hope that this audit will be conducted in a meaningful way, leading to true accountability and ultimately compensation for victims who have been re-victimized and harmed by these failures,” Henderson said. he said.

Another attorney, Arick Fudali, who represents a group of 10 Epstein survivors, told MS Nows: “I look forward to reviewing what the audit has achieved from this blatant attempt to obstruct transparency and accountability in the hope that this is not another partisan performance by this administration to pretend to care about Epstein survivors.”

Congress passed the Epstein files bill in November, months after then-Attorney General Pam Bondi reneged on her promise to release the Justice Department’s investigative file on Epstein.

Epstein, a former friend of President Donald Trump, killed himself in a federal prison in New York City in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

Trump fired Bondi on April 2 after becoming unhappy with the attorney general’s handling of issues related to the Epstein files.