House committee releases a number of files from the Ministry of Justice in the Epstein case, but most already publicly

Yet the files usually contain information that was already publicly known or available. The folders posted on Google Drive hold hundreds of image files of years old judicial archives with regard to Epstein, which died in 2019 in a prison in New York when he was confronted with accusations for sexual abuse of teenage girls, and Maxwell, who is a long imprisonment to help him.

The files also contain video that Body Cam images seemed to be of searches in the field of police, as well as recordings and summaries of interviews with law enforcement with victims describing the abuse that they said.

The release of the committee’s files showed how legislators would like to act according to the issue if they return to Washington after a one -month break. They quickly brought new life into a political collision that the Republican leadership of the house has fumbled and Roiled President Donald Trump’s Administration.

Huis Republican speaker Mike Johnson tries to suppress an attempt from Democrats and some Republicans to force a vote on a bill that would require the Ministry of Justice to release all information in the so-called EPstein files, with the exception of the personal information of the victims.

If the goal of the release was to give answers to an audience that is still curious about the long -closed cases, the raw mechanics of the awkward rollout made a challenge.

The committee at 6 p.m. released thousands of pages and videos via the cumbersome Google Drive, leaving readers and viewers to decipher new and interesting facts themselves.

The files released on Tuesday include audio from an Epstein employee who described a law enforcement officer how “there were many girls who were very, very young” who visited the house, but could not say if they were minors.

In the course of Epstein’s visits to the house, the man said, more than a dozen girls could visit, and he was accused of cleaning the room where Epstein had massages twice a day.

Some pages were almost completely edited. Other documents related to Epstein’s persecution in Florida that have led to a plea that has long been criticized as too smoothly, including e -mails between the defense and public prosecutors about the conditions of his probationary period after his conviction. Barbara Burns, a public prosecutor in Palm Beach County, expressed frustration while the defense insisted on fewer limitations on their client: “I no longer know how to transfer him than I already have that his client is a registered sex offender who was lucky to get the deal of the century.”

Some of the interviews with officers of the Palm Beach Police Department date until 2005, according to time stamps that are read by officials at the start of the files.

Most, if not all, the text documents posted on Tuesday had already been public. In particular, the likely cause of statement and other records from the 2005 investigation to Epstein contained a notation that indicated that they had previously been released in a public register request 2017. An internet investigation showed in July 2017 on the website of the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the top democrat in the Huis Oversight Committee, reprimanded Republicans in the panel for releasing materials that he said it consisted almost entirely of already available information.

“The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to ‘release’ already usually public information. To the American people – do not fool this,” Garcia said in a statement.

The disclosure also opened the question why the Ministry of Justice did not release the material directly to the public instead of operating via Capitol Hill.

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the speaker of the house and a two -part group of legislators met survivors of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.

“The goal here is not only to discover, to investigate the Epstein-Kwaden, but also to ensure that this never happens again and ultimately to find out why justice has been delayed for these ladies for so long,” said Johnson, R-la, after he came from a two-hour meeting with six of the survivors.

“It is unforgivable. And it will stop now because the congress is being tortured by this,” he added.

But there are still intense disagreements about how legislators should continue. Johnson insists on the investigation to be dealt with by the Huis Oversight Committee and the committee to release its findings.

In the meantime, Democrats and some Republicans were still trying to maneuver about Johnson’s control over the house floor to keep a vote on their bill to demand the Ministry of Justice that the public is released. Democrats stood in line in the living room on Tuesday evening to sign a petition from Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican in Kentucky, to force a mood. Three other Republicans also supported the maneuver, but Massie would still need two GOP laws and every democrat to be successful.

As a massie, which is on the bill in addition to Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Is able to force a vote that can last for weeks-the legislation still has to accept the Senate and must be signed by Trump in the law.

The collision suggests that little has changed in the congress since the end of July, when Johnson sent legislators at home In the hope of the political struggle to cool the Epstein case. Members of both parties remain dissatisfied and demand more details about the years old research into Epstein, the rich and well -linked financier whose death 2019 has led to broad conspiracy theories and speculation.

“We continue to bring the pressure. We are not going to stop until we get justice for all survivors and the victims,” ​​Garcia told reporters.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Kevin Frapping and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Mike Sisak in New York and Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, contributed.