U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore,) speaks during a press conference addressing a new policy that demands recipients of foreign military aid to follow international humanitarian law at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., February 9, 2024.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Congress’ independent watchdog plans to open an investigation into the Department of Justice’s handling of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
Merkley announced the opening of the probe on Tuesday, a little over a month after he and Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., requested the Government Accountability Office do so.
“”By illegally disregarding the law, the Trump Administration is cruelly denying ‘equal justice under the law’ to all of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims,” Merkley said in a statement. “This independent investigation is an important step in holding this Administration accountable for siding with the rich and powerful to help cover up the abuse of our most vulnerable.”
Merkley is the senator who introduced the Senate version of legislation that last year became law and compelled the release of the Epstein files.
In a letter sent to the GAO in March, Merkley and the other lawmakers alleged the DOJ did not comply with the law’s directive to protect victims while releasing the Epstein files. Instead, the lawmakers argued, the DOJ heavily redacted the names of powerful business and elected officials who appear in the files.
The public and many Congress members 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 opposition, mandated the full release of documents by Dec. 19, 2025. Critics have complained that mentions of Trump may have been left out of releases and about full names of alleged victims and other personal information being disclosed in the documents that were made public.
Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019, weeks after he was arrested on child sex trafficking charges. Trump, a former friend of Epstein’s, appears repeatedly in the files, though he has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the New York financier.
Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had come under fire for her handling of the Epstein episode, on April 2.
Last week, the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog announced it would take up 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 — led by Merkley and Murkowski, as well as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. — for an investigation into whether the department followed the law in its release of the files.
