U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore) speaks during a press conference addressing a new policy that requires recipients of foreign military aid to comply with international humanitarian law at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., on February 9, 2024.
Nathan Howard | reuters
Congress’ independent watchdog plans to launch an investigation into the Justice Department’s handling of files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
Merkley announced the launch of the investigation Tuesday, a little more than a month after she and Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., requested the Government Accountability Office to do so.
“By illegally disregarding the law, the Trump Administration is cruelly denying all of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims ‘equal justice under the law,'” Markle said in a statement.
Merkley is the senator who introduced the Senate version of legislation that became law last year and forced the release of the Epstein files.
In a letter sent to GAO in March, Merkley and other lawmakers alleged that the DOJ did not follow the law’s directives to protect victims when it released the Epstein files. Instead, the lawmakers argued, the DOJ heavily redacted the names of powerful businesses and elected officials that appear in the files.
The public and many members of Congress have been sharply critical of the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November after months of protest, mandated the full release of the documents by December 19, 2025. Critics have complained that mention of Trump could be left out of the release and that the full names and other personal information of alleged victims could be disclosed in the documents made public.
Epstein died by suicide in a federal prison in New York City in August 2019, weeks after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges. Epstein’s former friend Trump appears repeatedly in the files, although he has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the New York financier.
On April 2, Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had come under criticism for her handling of the Epstein affair.
Last week, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog announced it would open its own investigation of the agency’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
That audit comes in response to a separate request sent to the DOJ’s inspector general in December — which was led by Merkley and Murkowski as well as Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. – To check whether the department has followed the law in releasing the files.