The intrigue surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case intensified Tuesday, Aug. 5, as a congressional committee subpoenaed government records on the late sex offender while also seeking sworn testimony from a former president, his wife and eight former top law enforcement officials. For the second time, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that documents she promised to release contain little new information worth knowing.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is considering whether to release transcripts of recent interviews a top official conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, CNN reported. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term for conspiring with Epstein to exploit and abuse underage girls sexually. She was moved to a minimum security prison in Texas during the week of July 27 after speaking with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
These developments kept the Epstein affair in focus despite efforts by President Donald Trump to put the matter to rest. Trump once was reportedly friends with the disgraced financier – but was not among those subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee.
The panel’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said the subpoenas were issued because “It is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking generally and specifically its handling of the investigation of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell.”
Clintons among those subpoenaed
The committee’s most prominent targets were former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Comer described Epstein as the former president’s “good friend” and said Clinton “attended an intimate dinner” with Maxwell in 2014, three years after her involvement with Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking had become publicly known.
“By your own admission,” Comer wrote to Clinton, “you flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane four separate times in 2002 and 2003. During one of these trips, you were even pictured receiving a ‘massage’ from one of Mr. Epstein’s victims.”
Comer said that Clinton had allegedly pressured Vanity Fair magazine not to publish allegations that Epstein engaged in sex trafficking. The congressman also cited what he called “conflicting reports” about whether the former president had visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
“Given your past relationships with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell,” Comer told Clinton, “the Committee believes that you have information regarding their activities that is relevant to the Committee’s investigation.”
Comer said the committee wants to take a deposition from Hillary Clinton because her husband took four trips on Epstein’s plane on behalf of the Clinton Foundation, their family’s charitable organization. In addition, Comer said, Epstein’s nephew worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and for the State Department while she was secretary of state.
A spokesman for Comer did not respond to an inquiry from Straight Arrow News about whether the committee will also seek information about Trump’s relationship with Epstein.
The Clintons have not publicly responded to the subpoenas.
The Oversight Committee also issued subpoenas to six former attorneys general – Bill Barr, Merrick Garland, Alberto Gonzales, Eric Holder and Jeff Sessions – and former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller.
All were involved in investigations of Epstein or Maxwell or in litigation filed by some of Epstein’s victims over the government’s decision not to prosecute him on federal charges in 2007.
Bondi: Nothing new in testimony
The subpoenas came hours after Bondi reportedly sent annotated copies of grand jury transcripts to two federal judges who will decide whether testimony about Epstein and Maxwell can be unsealed.
In a letter accompanying the transcripts, Bondi and U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton of New York said the grand jury testimony contains little new material.
“The enclosed, annotated transcripts show that much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony – with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses – was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,” Bondi and Clayton wrote.
The disclaimer resembled Bondi’s statement in early July that the Justice Department’s files on the Epstein case contained little that was not already publicly known. She said then that investigators had found no “client list” of Epstein’s associates – even though she had said in February that the list was on her desk.
Bondi also said in July that no additional documents would be released – stirring dissent among many Trump supporters who believe Epstein was killed in a New York jail cell to cover up what he knew about powerful figures who had engaged in sex trafficking.
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Author: Alan Judd
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