Documents from the Epstein investigation have been requested from the US Department of Justice by the House Oversight Committee. In total, over 33,000 additional documents have been made public.
Since the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was exposed, there has been strong interest in gaining greater insight into the investigation, particularly since a number of well-known names have been linked to the convicted sex offender. Last year, federal judge Loretta A. Preska released classified lawsuit documents, where among others Prince Andrew is accused of having sexual relations with minors at orgies on several occasions.
During Donald Trump's election campaign, he declared that more documents would be released if he became president, including Epstein's "black book" with names of clients who he flew with his private jet, called "Lolita Express", to his private island in the Caribbean. After being elected president, however, he chose to put a lid on it, something that upset Trump's voter base. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have also demanded that the documents be released.
Democrats argued that Trump had broken his promise and he was accused of trying to cover up the investigation. To force the release of the documents, they therefore implemented "the rule of five", which in short is a law that makes it possible to force federal agencies to release documents if five members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs request it.
Full transparency
Now 33,000 documents from the investigation have been requested from the Department of Justice by the U.S. House Oversight Committee, reports CNN.
— We're in the process of uploading those documents for full transparency so everyone in America can see those documents, says the committee chairman, Republican James Comer.
The primary reason is that they want transparency in the case. However, they note that 97 percent of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public.
"There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims", says Democrat Robert Garcia, who sits on the committee.
It is unclear, however, whether the documents contain any new information.
