‘Coincidence?’ Democrats say Epstein file deadline slipped as Trump launched foreign operation

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the statutory deadline for the Department of Justice to explain its controversial redactions in the Epstein file productions coincided with President Donald Trump invading a sovereign nation and kidnapping its leader, as Americans slept.The committee noted the timing in a post on X, writing, “We are sure it’s just a coincidence, but today is the statutory date for the DOJ to explain its redactions in the Epstein file productions.”“We have not forgotten, and we won’t let up—regardless of the President’s new unconstitutional actions.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.The deadline to release the Epstein files came and went last month, and the Trump administration faced serious questions over its decision to redact large swaths of the released files, The Daily Beast reported.The administration faced additional scrutiny after it was discovered that the Department of Justice deleted 16 files from its website after the fact, including one that featured a photo of Trump with Epstein.The DOJ said it had to weigh executive and legal privacy and considerations around victims’ privacy when determining what to redact, but critics said this did not account for the millions of files that were not released on time and still had yet to materialise.Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie, who spearheaded the campaign to pressure the Trump administration to release the Epstein files, announced on Friday that they would bypass the DOJ by asking the Southern District Court of New York to appoint a “special master” to ensure all of the documents were released.“What I want to see over these next few weeks is for the documents actually to start coming out that the American people want to see—and the survivors want to see—which is the documents that name the rich and powerful men who are on Epstein’s rape island,” Khanna told NPR’s Michel Martin.The pair also sought to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress, which would result in her being fined for every day that the DOJ failed to release the files in their entirety.The Department of Justice estimated it would not finish reviewing the remaining files until at least Jan. 20, writing on social media, “We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible.”It enlisted some 400 lawyers to assist with the efforts.Khanna, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told NPR that he and Massie were “less concerned about the delay and are more concerned about the documents that are being withheld.”“We want to see the survivors’ statements to the FBI where they name other rich and powerful men who abused them or who covered up the crimes,” he said. “And we want to see the draft prosecution memos, which explain why many, many men were involved in the cover-up and abuse.”