Comer drops 137-page Epstein report and tells DOJ to keep digging

Comer, who hands the gavel to Democrats when Congress flips, unveiled the report Tuesday after 15 months of interviews and depositions. It paints Epstein as a man shielded for decades by powerful connections, a lenient justice system and institutions that looked away. The committee called in high-profile names including former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates along the way.

The report takes direct aim at the 2007 non-prosecution agreement that let Epstein dodge a federal indictment in South Florida in exchange for a state guilty plea. It faults the prosecutors who signed off, financial institutions that missed or ignored trafficking red flags, and staff like Groff, whose testimony the committee branded not credible. Survivors told CNN earlier this year that Groff discussed their ages with them and paid them directly, contradicting what she told lawmakers.

Comer's biggest ask lands at the Justice Department's door: investigate Groff, former Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai, both accused of sexual assault by Epstein's former assistant Sarah Kellen. He also wants a formal process letting survivors and their representatives pull their own unredacted files. Millions of Epstein documents have already been released, but survivors say millions more are still locked up.

Ghislaine Maxwell remains the only person charged in the US over Epstein-linked crimes. She is serving time in a minimum-security Texas prison for helping his abuse of minors. Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.

Notably, the report says it found no documents implicating President Donald Trump in Epstein-related criminal activity, though Comer has previously claimed survivors exonerated Trump, a characterization survivors rejected. Comer accused Democrats of running a dishonest, politically motivated campaign against the president during the probe.

The committee soon belongs to Robert Garcia, the California Democrat who has promised to examine Trump, his family and the Epstein files, and wants Epstein hearings held in public. He called the Republican work incomplete, saying the DOJ is illegally withholding over 2.5 million pages, that Maxwell's transfer went uninvestigated, and that Attorney General Todd Blanche has yet to testify about his role in what Garcia called the largest government cover-up of the modern era.