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The chairman of the House’s chief investigative committee said on Monday that the Justice Department would miss his panel’s Tuesday subpoena deadline for providing files related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, but would begin sharing some records starting Friday.
Representative James R. Comer, the Kentucky Republican who leads the Oversight Committee, issued the subpoena to Attorney General Pam Bondi this month after a few G.O.P. lawmakers on the panel teamed with Democrats to force his hand. It set an Aug. 19 deadline for the Justice Department to give the committee all of its files related to Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in federal prison while awaiting trial in 2019.
But ahead of his announcement on Monday, Mr. Comer signaled to reporters at the Capitol that he did not expect the Justice Department to meet the deadline, chalking it up to the sheer volume of records it had on Mr. Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate who is serving a 20-year sentence on sex trafficking charges.
“There are many records in D.O.J.’s custody, and it will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” Mr. Comer said in a statement.
Mr. Comer did not provide any details about the timeline for the full release of the files requested by the subpoena, which included material related to the criminal cases against Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell and the investigation into Mr. Epstein’s death.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. But it is expected to provide documents on a rolling basis, which will likely force Republican lawmakers to confront continued questions about the Epstein files that have already plagued them for months.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee expressed skepticism about Mr. Comer’s announcement. “Late or partial disclosures won’t cut it,” they wrote on social media. “Our committee wants transparency, and we can’t trust the DOJ to be honest.”
The House Oversight Committee was required to send a subpoena for the Epstein files after Democrats forced a vote in a key oversight subcommittee last month. A small group of Republicans joined them to back the subpoena, including Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who pushed for a provision that required the Justice Department to redact information about Mr. Epstein’s victims and remove any material that depicted children being sexually abused.
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Representative James R. Comer, the Kentucky Republican who leads the Oversight Committee, at the Capitol in Washington on Monday for a deposition with former Attorney General Bill Barr.Credit…J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
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