The court has asked the Trump administration to respond to lawmakers’ request by Friday.
Lawmakers want an independent “ special master ” to oversee the Trump administration’s release of its files on Jeffrey Epstein , potentially helping to ensure all the files will be made public after the government failed to comply with the law mandating their release.
a federal judge last week to appoint a third-party special master or independent monitor to oversee the government’s release of the Epstein files. The Justice Department was legally required to make all its documents on Epstein public by Dec. 19, but has so far only released aDOJ’s failure to release the files has raised speculation among critics that the government will further delay making the files public and keep some documents hidden entirely, sparking the need for a third party to “ensur all the documents and electronically stored information are immediately made public,” Khanna and Massie wrote. The special master, if appointed, would oversee the release of documents and submit reports to the court detailing “the true nature and extent of the document production and if improper redactions or other improper conduct is taking place,” according to the lawmakers. A special master could put pressure on the Trump administration to release its full documents quicker, and ensure no materials that are required to be disclosed stay hidden. It’s unclear how long the debate over the special master’s appointment will take to play out, however—and it won’t be until next week at the earliest, after the court directed the Trump administration to respond to Massie and Khanna’s request by Friday, and for the lawmakers to file any response to that filing by Tuesday.“Absent an independent process … we do not believe the DOJ will produce the records that are required by the ,” Khanna and Massie wrote in their letter, which was filed on the docket for Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case.earlier in January it would take DOJ officials at least several more weeks to even review all the files it has in its possession, meaning the full files would not be released until the end of January at the earliest. It’s unclear how long the government intends to take to make any documents public after they’re reviewed, and if the DOJ could release smaller numbers of documents in batches as the review continues.Potentially over a million, according to the Trump administration. DOJ said in a court filing Jan. 5 there are more thanit still has to review, though many of those may be duplicates of other files. Only 12,285 files have so far been released, less than 1% of all the materials the government has. Othersuggest the number of remaining documents in early January was closer to five million, while Khanna and Massie speculated in their court filing the Trump administration may be intentionally overstating the number of files it has left to review to portray compliance with the law as“unmanageable” and delay disclosure..is an independent third party whom a court appoints to carry out a specific task on its behalf, like overseeing some aspect of a case or handling evidence. Before the present debate over the Epstein files, special masters made headlines in 2022, after the FBI searched President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The president successfully petitioned the court toa special master to review the documents the government seized from Mar-a-Lago in order to review and filter out any materials covered by executive privilege. The special master’s appointment was widely criticized for stymieing the Biden administration’s criminal investigation into Trump retaining classified documents by slowing it down.The Epstein Files Transparency Act does not outline any punishment if the government doesn’t comply by releasing the files, and the Trump administration is all but certain not to prosecute itself. The law does not have a statute of limitations so it’s possible a future Democratic administration could bring criminal charges against DOJ officials who don’t release files, Khanna and Massie have said, and Democrats in Congress could choose to take further legal action to force the files’ release if the DOJ continues to keep them on hold.Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November amid public outcry over the files, after DOJ officials said over the summer they would not release any further materials voluntarily. Epstein died in prison in 2019 after being indicted on sex trafficking charges, but the financier’s case has remained a source of widespread public fascination, given Epstein’s cadre of high-profile friends and business associates. Lawmakers took up the cause of releasing the Epstein files after DOJ refused to do so itself, with Congress passing the federal law in addition to launching an investigation through the House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed the DOJ for its files. The DOJ has released several tranches ofsuggesting President Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane with only the financier and a 20-year-old woman. The government has not released many of its materials on Epstein that are believed to be the most informative, however, such as filings indicating any of Epstein’s associates that may have faced investigation, and DOJ has faced criticism over technical errors and
Special Master When Will Epstein Files Be Released Epstein Files Delay Jeffrey Epstein Ghislaine Maxwell Ro Khanna Thomas Massie Court Filing Trump Administration
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