The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is pressing the Department of Justice to release missing files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
An NPR investigation this week found the Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation finds. It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.
“All these documents have to be transparent, and the public deserve to know what happened and why the FBI is not releasing them,” Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California, said in an interview with Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan.
3 questions with Rep. Robert Garcia
What leverage to do you have to compel the Justice Department to release the missing files?
“First of all, this is incredibly serious. I myself personally went to the DOJ to look for these documents, and they’re missing.
“This archive of what should be in the files as it relates to this one survivor makes it very clear what documents should be there for us to search. And those documents are missing. And, of course, NPR has done some really important reporting on this.
“At the end of the day, we have a survivor who has made allegations and accusations that she was abused by both Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump. Those are allegations, but they still are in the files and they’ve been removed. And the idea that somehow they want to bypass the law and the subpoena that clearly states that those have to be available to the public, I think is really concerning, and, quite frankly, a cover-up that continues to be a pattern from the DOJ, which is why we are now engaged in demanding the attorney general and investigating these documents and why they are not released to the public. All these documents have to be transparent, and the public deserve to know what happened and why the FBI is not releasing them.”
You said you’ve reviewed unredacted documents. Can you tell us anything about the allegations?
“What we know is that that there is documentation that between DOJ agents and DOJ personnel discussing this allegation, that that is something that has been public, that we understand the FBI and the DOJ have made no explanation as to why they are not in the release of the files and there’s no legal argument for why they’re not released.”
Having seen what you have seen, do you know what those additional specific allegations are?
“I understand what those allegations may be. I think it’s important for us to be responsible at this moment and get the allegations out in the public and the documentation from the FBI out to the public. I think that’s right now the most important thing. They need to release those documents.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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