Justice Department asks federal judge to deny special master for Epstein files
(This January 17 story is reproduced without any changes to the text)
NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has asked a New York federal judge to reject a request from two lawmakers seeking to appoint a special monitor to monitor the public release of records related to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Justice Department has been releasing caches of documents related to the Epstein investigations since December. But U.S. Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie criticized the department’s slow progress.
Khanna, a California Democrat, and Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said last week that they had asked U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer to allow them to file a brief arguing for the appointment of a special administrator and independent monitor, given the Justice Department’s failure to fully comply with a law requiring the Justice Department to release all records related to Epstein by Dec. 19.
In a six-page letter filed Friday with U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer, U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche argued that Khanna and Thomas Massie are not parties to the U.S. v. Ghislaine Maxwell case involving Epstein and should not be allowed to seek a friend of the court in this matter.
“Representatives Khanna and Massie lack credibility, their stated goals are inconsistent with the role of friend and the role of the Court, and in any event, there is no authority that permits the Court to grant the Representatives the relief they improperly seek,” the Justice Department said in the letter, signed by Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. he said.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
The Justice Department said that by the end of 2025, 5.2 million pages of the Epstein file remain to be reviewed and that it needs 400 attorneys from four different department offices to assist with the process by the end of January.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul)
