Epstein's post-2005 crimes could have been prevented, Congress report finds

The Republican-led US House Oversight Committee released its final report on Tuesday, wrapping a 15-month investigation built on witness interviews, depositions, government files and financial records. Its verdict: crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein after 2005 could have been prevented were it not for failures by federal investigators and prosecutors. Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The panel focused heavily on the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, which entered an agreement with Epstein in 2007 that allowed him to evade federal prosecution instead of fully investigating allegations in other states. The report describes some of those failures as an exercise in poor judgement by the USAO, while others appeared to stem from Epstein's pervasive and wide-reaching influence.

On Epstein's death in a New York prison, investigators pointed to a series of institutional failures at the facility, including staffing shortages, overworked employees, poor recordkeeping and lax security practices. Testimony the panel gathered was unable to definitively dispel certain theories about the death, the report states, including accounting for a lapse in surveillance footage.

The report also faults the justice department over its handling of document releases, saying deficient redactions exposed survivors' sensitive personal information. Earlier this year, the DoJ removed thousands of Epstein-related documents from its website after victims said their identities had been compromised. It further alleges that financial institutions such as American Express enabled human trafficking and immigration fraud by letting Epstein use decoy flights and dummy itineraries to move foreign workers across borders. The BBC has contacted American Express for comment.

Among its recommendations, the panel urged Congress to pass legislation preventing the weaponisation of non-disclosure agreements, which it says Epstein used to silence survivors. Committee chairman James Comer said Epstein operated with impunity, shielded and enabled by powerful connections and a justice system that repeatedly failed his victims, and called on the DoJ to interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity and ensure survivors can access their records.

The report accuses Democrats of being obsessed with trying to implicate President Donald Trump, calling it an unfounded witch hunt pursued without regard for survivors, and concludes the committee's document review identified nothing that would implicate him. Trump has previously said he was friendly with Epstein before they fell out in 2004, and while his name appears thousands of times in the Epstein files, there is no suggestion that appearing in the documents implies wrongdoing. Rep Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, called the report the product of an incomplete investigation with zero public hearings, and accused the justice department of withholding over 2.5 million pages of documents.