Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, the bipartisan pair of co-sponsors of the law that forced the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files, want a federal judge in New York to appoint a “special master” to independently oversee the DOJ’s efforts.
Attorneys for both lawmakers on Monday evening asked U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who oversaw the criminal trial of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, to make the appointment.
In a letter to the judge, Khanna and Massie wrote that they “believe that criminal violations have taken place and must be addressed” — but first, they hope federal courts will step in and force DOJ to follow the law.
“Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the act,” they wrote.
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In a letter to the judge last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi admitted that the DOJ was falling woefully behind in releasing the documents, having only released 12,285 of them (making up 125,575 pages) with more than “more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act that are in various phases of review.”
The judge is taking the request from Khanna and Massie seriously, having ordered the congressmen’s lawyers at the firm Siri & Glimstad to file their request publicly. That request asked for permission to file the amicus brief letter quoted above for the judge’s consideration.
After much resistance from the White House over several months, President Donald Trump eventually signed the bill into law in November. The DOJ began releasing documents on the day they were due shortly before the holidays, but by early January it had published less than 1% of the files.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Bondi would oppose being overseen by a special master who would have the power to monitor its efforts — or even compel it to release documents faster.
The DOJ has been roundly criticized by people across the political spectrum over the way it has mishandled the release of the highly sought after FBI investigative files that document the way the pedophile billionaire preyed on teenage girls and raped them — often with the knowledge of powerful friends in politics and the business world.
The initial batch of files published by the DOJ heavily featured former President Bill Clinton, sparking some concern that the Trump administration was trying to use this as a political stunt to harm his enemies. Bondi in particular was condemned over the way the DOJ appeared to make Trump’s name unsearchable in large swathes of the text metadata and also took down some files that featured pictures of Trump — under the guise of protecting some of Epstein’s victims.
Democrats have seized on the DOJ’s slow-rolling release, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asking, “What are they trying to hide?”
The Manhattan federal judge will consider whether Khanna and Massie have legal standing to inject themselves into Maxwell’s criminal case and has asked their lawyers to file briefs explaining whether the court has the authority to review whether the DOJ is abiding by the law that just passed. Engelmayer is giving the DOJ until Friday to respond in court.
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