A federal judge on Wednesday shot down a request by members of Congress to appoint an independent special master to oversee the Justice Department’s handling of the release of the Epstein files, saying their request wasn’t properly made.
Judge Paul Engelmayer said Reps. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, California Democrat, could file a separate lawsuit and try their luck that way.
But he said their attempt to raise the issue as part of the criminal case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of Jeffrey Epstein who was convicted of sex trafficking, was improper.
“This criminal case does not give the court any charter to supervise DOJ’s compliance with the [Epstein Files Transparency Act]. And the motion exceeds the bounds of permissible amici [friend of the court] participation,” he said.
The judge said he didn’t take a position on whether that separate lawsuit would succeed. But he noted the congressmen have other tools at their disposal — namely oversight of the Justice Department through their roles in Congress.
Mr. Khanna told The Washington Times he has not yet read the order but he trusts the judge’s integrity.
Asked if he and Mr. Massie have a backup plan, he said they’re also looking at U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman, who presided over Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case and ordered grand jury materials to be unsealed as required under the new law.
“The judge can push for some of the documents to come out,” Mr. Khanna said.
The Epstein act was approved by Congress and signed by President Trump late last year. It set a deadline for the Justice Department to review and release the massive trove of documents the government has about Epstein, a convicted sex offender who took his own life in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
As of early January, 12,285 documents totaling 125,575 pages had been posted to the Justice Department’s Epstein Library webpage.
The department said it was reviewing more than 2 million other documents.
The law called for all files to be reviewed and released last month.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, during a hearing Wednesday, said she’d been told by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that the universe of documents was “over 5 million files.”
The Florida Republican said she was told the department’s review was finished but “the hang-up” in releasing them was a judge’s order that U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, personally certify that victim information was being redacted.
