Representative Ro Khanna, D-Calif., during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Graham Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Two members of Congress on Thursday asked a federal judge in New York to appoint a so-called special judge to ensure that all material relating to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is released by the Justice Department as required by a law they pushed.
Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, accused the Justice Department of failing to meet a Dec. 19 deadline to release all Epstein files at the request of their independent monitor.
In a letter obtained by CNBC, Massey and Khanna wrote to Manhattan Federal Court Judge Paul Engelmayer: “The Justice Department’s actions are not only a serious violation of the disclosure obligations under the Epstein File Transparency Act, but, as this court has recognized in previous decisions, the Justice Department’s actions have caused severe trauma to the survivors.” The letter was first reported by MS Now.
“As leaders of the Epstein File Transparency Act, we have urgent and serious concerns about the Department of Justice’s failure to comply with the Act and the Department’s violation of court orders,” the letter said.
The Justice Department said in a court filing earlier this week that it still needs to review more than 2 million documents related to Epstein.
To date, the Justice Department has released only a fraction of that, fewer than 13,000 documents, according to the filing.
“The Justice Department is openly defying the law by refusing to release the entire Epstein file, leaving millions of files withheld from the public,” Khanna said in a statement to CNBC.
“The Justice Department deleted the records after publication without explanation, while failing to make necessary redactions to protect survivors,” Khanna said.
“That is why we are requesting the appointment of a special director to oversee the release of files and ensure that the Department of Justice complies with the law,” he said.
In their letter to Engelmayer, Massey and Khanna also pointed out that the Justice Department has so far failed to submit a report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees regarding the redactions it made to documents and material that was withheld from public release.
“To date, no such report has been filed. Without one, there is no authoritative explanation of what records exist, what is being hidden, or why, making effective oversight and judicial review much more difficult,” Massey and Khanna wrote, according to MS Now.
“Simply put, the Department of Justice cannot be trusted to make the required disclosures under the Act.”
Mr. Engelmayer is overseeing the criminal case that convicted Mr. Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, of recruiting underage girls for sexual abuse.
CNBC has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment on the letter.
Epstein, 66, committed suicide in a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019, weeks after he was arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
