FSFP applauds Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie for introducing the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405), and urges Congress to promptly pass the bill into law. The U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump Administration is concealing thousands of documents, protecting wealthy and powerful individuals associated with Jeffrey Epstein—including Trump himself—at the expense of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims and the American public.

Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell were wealthy, powerful, and connected. For years, officials with the DOJ and other agencies of the U.S. government have been more interested in protecting Epstein and his associates than with obtaining justice for his victims. A 2007 investigation into Epstein’s sexual exploitation of children petered out into a sealed indictment and a sweetheart plea deal, negotiated with a U.S. district attorney, that granted immunity from federal prosecution to Epstein and a number of named and unnamed “potential co-conspirators.” Instead, he pleaded guilty to lesser state charges, was given work release and early release, and was granted leniency throughout his probation period. This deal may yet protect conspirators whose names the public still doesn’t know.

Epstein was arrested again in 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors between 2002 and 2005. The indictment alleged that he “created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit, often on a daily basis, in locations including New York and Palm Beach.” He died in prison a month later under suspicious circumstances, but in what officials ruled a suicide. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to twenty years in prison—though recently she was transferred from a federal prison to a minimum security prison camp, a move that may have violated Bureau of Prison policy and the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. Thousands of records from the Epstein investigation remain shrouded in secrecy, even as the scant publicly available documents indicate that powerful individuals and entities were caught up in Epstein’s schemes.

At every turn, our justice system has treated the conspirators and the evidence in the Epstein cases differently from the way it treats defendants and evidence in other cases. And now, six years after Epstein’s death, thousands of documents remain concealed by Trump’s DOJ, which has a known track record of corruptly protecting Trump, his financial interests, his personal associates, and the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country.

Representatives Khanna and Massie are leading the charge in saying: Enough. Enough corruption. Enough protecting the interests of the powerful over the interests of the people. Enough of the DOJ keeping Congress and the American people in the dark. FSFP applauds Representatives Khanna and Massie’s efforts, endorses the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and urges everyone to call upon their Members of Congress to support this bill.