The first wave of Jeffrey Epstein related documents turned over to Congress is stirring up frustration on Capitol Hill. Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania says the massive 33,295 page release barely included anything new. According to her, only about three percent of the files actually introduced fresh information.
“The remaining 97% of pages included information previously released by the Department of Justice, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office,” Lee explained while speaking on the review carried out by Oversight Committee Democrats.
Lee did not hold back in her statement Saturday, describing the files as mostly “recycled content already made available to the public.” She also argued the release felt incomplete and far from what Congress expected when it demanded the records.
The Justice Department had delivered the first batch of files on Friday in response to a subpoena issued earlier this month. These documents were supposed to help lawmakers dig deeper into Epstein’s web of crimes and possible connections. Still, it remains unclear what details are inside the records, or how much has been redacted.
Lee, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, originally filed the motion to force President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to release Epstein’s files. She believes the public deserves a complete accounting rather than what she views as a selective dump of information.
On the Republican side, a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee insisted the panel “intends to make these records public after thorough review.”
For now though, the spotlight remains on the quality of the release. With the majority of it being duplicates of past disclosures, Lee and other Democrats say the promise of transparency still has a long way to go.