WASHINGTON – Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, has charged that the Department of Justice’s investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case files was halted in January.
“According to information provided to our Committee by counsel for Epstein survivors … the investigation into co-conspirators (had) inexplicably ceased, and no further investigative steps appear to have been taken,” Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The FBI publicly announced the end of its investigation in July, claiming that there was insufficient evidence to incriminate any third parties involved in child exploitation. This came months after the files were transferred to the Department of Justice from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in January.
Upon the transfer, prosecutors and survivors who testified in the case were led to believe that the investigation was active and ongoing, Raskin said in his letter.
“Unbeknownst to both survivors and SDNY prosecutors, it was transferred so that it could be killed,” Raskin said.
Raskin’s letter to Bondi criticized the DOJ’s decision to discredit survivor testimonies naming Epstein’s co-conspirators in their decision to close investigation into the case files. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
Raskin’s letter called the decision a “betrayal” to survivors of Epstein’s trafficking ring, who “assisted federal agents and prosecutors in the hope of holding the perpetrators…accountable.”
“Why would the Trump Administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) kill an ongoing criminal investigation into a massive and decades-long criminal sex trafficking ring that preyed on girls and young women? Who exactly are you intending to protect by this action?” Raskin asked.
The lawmaker said that nearly 50 survivors testified to the FBI that at least 20 men were involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Survivors’ testimony included the men’s identities and information on the structure and financing of the ring, he said.
Raskin questioned why the evidence was deemed insufficient, despite being used to convict Ghislane Maxwell.
“These facts are well-established and well-publicized, but they are the leads that your Department has deemed ‘not credible,’” Raskin wrote.
Raskin demanded that Bondi provide Congress with detailed information on how investigations into Epstein’s co-conspirators were managed under the current administration.
Raskin has long been critical of the Trump administration’s oversight of Epstein-related investigations, accusing the FBI of “withholding documents” and initiating a “cover-up” during a September hearing at which FBI Director Kash Patel testified.
“Any allegations that I’m a part of a cover-up to protect child sexual trafficking…is patently and categorically false,” Patel said.
Since the investigation’s closure, the Trump administration and President Donald Trump himself have asserted that the Epstein files are a “hoax” perpetuated by political enemies.
Although the president has a documented relationship with the disgraced financier, he has repeatedly denied any participation in sex trafficking.
“I’m not involved,” Trump said in a podcast interview last year. “I never went to his island, fortunately. But a lot of people did.”
Both Bondi and Patel have echoed these claims, stating that investigations have found no evidence of Trump’s involvement.
Bondi went so far as to call the allegations “slander” during a hearing in October.
In response to the DOJ’s closure of the case, Raskin and other Democrats on the judiciary panel are considering reforms to the Crime Victims Rights Act. Raskin is proposing a clarification of prosecutors’ responsibility to confer with survivors of crimes prior criminal proceedings.
Raskin likened the DOJ’s decision to U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta’s failure to consult survivors in non-prosecution negotiations leading to Epstein’s sweetheart plea deal in 2008 immunizing co-conspirators.
Raskin said the committee would “work to ensure that political appointees at DOJ cannot silently pause or end longstanding investigations to protect powerful individuals from accountability.”
Rankin issued a similar letter with other judiciary panel Democrats in July, urging Bondi to publicly release mentions of the president in Epstein-related documents.
A bipartisan effort to force the release of the Epstein files has stalled in the House – one vote shy of the 218 needed for a so-called discharge petition that would bring the issue to the floor.
The likely 218th vote – Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona – has been waiting since her election on Sept. 23 to be sworn in. But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has kept the House out of session, blocking not only Grijalva’s oath-taking but also impeding bipartisan talks to end the record-breaking government shutdown.