Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor told a federal judge Friday that he lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents from the sex trafficking investigation of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, in a letter to Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, said the court must reject a request from two bipartisan House lawmakers who cited “urgent and grave concerns” about the pace of the document release. Clayton said the lawmakers lack legal standing to seek such relief because they are not parties to the criminal case.
Reps. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican — cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act — contend that the Justice Department has released only 12,000 of more than 2 million documents under review, a figure they called a “flagrant violation” of the law’s disclosure requirements that has caused “serious trauma to survivors.”
The standing dispute
Clayton told Engelmayer in his letter that Khanna and Massie do not have standing with the court to seek the “extraordinary” relief of a special master and independent monitor. The congressmen are not parties to the criminal case that led to Maxwell’s December 2021 sex trafficking conviction and her subsequent 20-year prison sentence for recruiting girls and women for Epstein to abuse and aiding the abuse, Clayton said.
Khanna disputed that characterization. “We are informing the Court of serious misconduct by the Department of Justice that requires a remedy, one we believe this Court has the authority to provide, and which victims themselves have requested,” Khanna said in a statement. Clayton’s response had “misconstrued” the intent of the request, Khanna said, adding that their purpose was “to ensure that DOJ complies with its representations to the Court and with its legal obligations under our law.”
What the lawmakers sought
In their filing to Engelmayer, Khanna and Massie wrote that the department’s disclosure of 12,000 documents out of more than 2 million under review amounted to a “flagrant violation” of the law’s requirements. They also alleged that “criminal violations have taken place” in the release process and said the department “cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act.”
They requested that a court-appointed monitor be given authority to prepare reports on the true nature and extent of document production and to determine whether improper redactions or conduct had occurred.
DOJ explanation and next steps
The Justice Department said the pace of releases was slowed by redactions required to protect the identities of abuse victims. Clayton said the department expects to update the court “again shortly” on its progress in turning over documents from the Epstein and Maxwell investigative files.
Epstein died in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.