Justice Department says members of Congress can't intervene in release of Epstein files

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 8:29 PM EST, January 16, 2026


NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking probe of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer was told in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he must reject a request this week by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, say they have “urgent and grave concerns” about the slow release of only a small number of millions of documents that began last month.

In a filing to the judge they said they believed “criminal violations have taken place” in the release process. Clayton, though, said Khanna and Massie do not have standing with the court that would allow them to seek the “extraordinary” relief of the appointment of a special master and independent monitor.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/epstein-congress-neutral-expert-dfff6c2f06162a4a7a637fe22c4e2dc1

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Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents

Yet that same office had a Special Master assigned to sort out Michael Cohen's seized records to filter out "attorney-client" privilege stuff vs other stuff and in Florida, 45 insisted on one (granted by Loose Cannon to delay the case, but then halted by the 11th Circuit) with respect to the classified docs seized at Mar-a-Lago, and supposed (non-existent) "Executive privilege" items.