Government watchdog to probe Trump administration's handling of Epstein files
QWER
A federal government watchdog will open an investigation into the Trump administration's handling of files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Scripps News has learned, following a request from a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) Congresss independent watchdog agency will review DOJ's processes in reviewing, redacting, and releasing the Epstein files, a spokesperson told Scripps News in an email Tuesday.
The official declined to provide any further details as to who would be leading the review or when any findings would be released publicly.
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The first thing GAO does once it has accepted work is determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used, the spokesperson said. At this time, we cannot provide any estimates on a completion date.
The Epstein Transparency Act, passed near-unanimously by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump last fall, mandated that the Department of Justice (DOJ) release all unclassified records related to Epstein and his associates by December 19, 2025.
The law included specific language concerning what types of redactions were allowed in those documents: names and information could only be redacted in narrow circumstances to protect survivors identities and privacy, but redactions intended to protect individuals from reputational harm were explicitly prohibited.
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Yet within the roughly 3.5 million pages of documents released, many additional redactions were apparent. Moreover, a number of victims names were included unredacted in the documents. At least one such woman is suing the DOJ and Google over the disclosure.
The GAO investigation comes in response to a letter last month from a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), calling on GAO to conduct such an inquiry.
Contrary to Congresss explicit directive to protect victims, these records included email addresses and nude photos in which the names and faces of publicly-identified and non-public victims could be identified, Merkley wrote, joined by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ben Ray Lujn (D-New Mexico) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois).
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But when it came to information identifying powerful business and political figures who are alleged coconspirators or material witnesses, DOJ appears to have heavily redacted those records, the lawmakers continued. This horrific scandal is one where powerful, wealthy men groomed, abused, and raped young women, men, and children. It is critical to understand what led to DOJs failure to redact the victims information and re-victimize those individuals while violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act in its redactions of information related to their alleged abusers.
The White House declined to comment, deferring to the Justice Dept. Officials with the DOJ did not immediately responded to inquiries about the new review.
Last week, the DOJs Office of Inspector General announced its own review of DOJs handling of the Epstein files. That review will examine whether the department properly identified, redacted and released records as required under the law, a DOJ OIG spokesperson said in a statement, adding that a public report detailing the findings will be released once the review is complete.
