Justice Department says members of Congress can't intervene in release of Epstein files

NEW YORK — Manhattan's top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking probe of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer was told in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he must reject a request made earlier this week by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, say they have ''urgent and grave concerns'' about the slow release of only a small number of millions of documents that began last month.

In a filing to the judge they said they believed ''criminal violations have taken place'' in the release process.

Clayton, though, said Khanna and Massie do not have standing with the court that would allow them to seek the ''extraordinary'' relief of the appointment of a special master and independent monitor.

Engelmayer ''lacks the authority'' to grant such a request, he said, particularly because the congressional representatives who made the request are not parties to the criminal case that led to Maxwell's December 2021 sex trafficking conviction and subsequent 20-year prison sentence for recruiting girls and women for Epstein to abuse and aiding the abuse.

Epstein died in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.

The Justice Department has said the files' release was slowed by redactions required to protect the identities of abuse victims.

In their letter, Khanna and Massie wrote that the Department of Justice's release of only 12,000 documents out of more than 2 million documents being reviewed was a ''flagrant violation'' of the law's release requirements and had caused ''serious trauma to survivors.''

''Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act,'' the congressmen said as they asked for the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure all documents and electronically stored information are immediately made public.