House Oversight Report Urges DOJ to Renew Epstein Associates Probe
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has released a 136-page report on its 15-month investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, concluding that the federal government failed the survivors of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation for decades and urging the Justice Department to renew its investigation of his associates.
The report, released on Tuesday, November 10, rebukes the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein case and recommends that the department interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate allegations of criminal activity involving people connected to Epstein, and give survivors unredacted access to their own records.
“We cannot undo the horrific harm inflicted on these women. But we must ensure that allegations of criminal activity are thoroughly investigated, survivors are protected, and those responsible are held accountable. The failures of the past must not be repeated,” committee chairman James Comer said on releasing the findings.
A 15-month inquiry
The committee said its inquiry included 19 transcribed interviews and depositions, along with reviews of government documents, financial records and materials obtained from Epstein’s estate. It subpoenaed the Justice Department, Epstein’s estate and two major banks, and reviewed Treasury Department financial records, according to Comer. KJWL’s account of the report describes it as sharply critical of the Justice Department and federal prosecutors, accusing them of repeated failures that allowed Epstein to continue abusing victims.
The report concludes that Epstein’s crimes could have been prevented if not for failures by prosecutors in Florida and Washington, and by federal investigators. Comer put it bluntly: “The federal government has failed the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes for decades.”
The committee also called for greater scrutiny of the banks that handled Epstein’s money, saying they failed to spot indicators of human trafficking and enabled the activity.
The 2007 deal that let Epstein avoid federal charges
Much of the report revisits the controversial 2007 non-prosecution agreement in Florida, under which Epstein avoided federal charges in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser state offences. He pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The committee said the agreement, entered into by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, was one of a series of decisions that allowed Epstein to continue abusing victims for years. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell, his accomplice, was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The witnesses the committee wants interviewed
The report names specific people the Justice Department should interview or re-interview. It calls on investigators to revisit the testimony of Lesley Groff, Epstein’s longtime assistant, about her potential knowledge of Epstein’s alleged crimes and her role in facilitating them.
It also says the department should examine allegations involving two men identified by former Epstein employee Sarah Kellen during her testimony. According to the report, Kellen alleged that former Democratic Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine and French celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai sexually assaulted her in the early 2000s. The report presents those accounts as allegations, and they have not resulted in charges.
The committee further urged Congress to pass legislation sponsored by Comer that would stop nondisclosure agreements from being used to silence survivors of sexual abuse, allowing them to speak freely about their experiences even if they signed confidentiality agreements.
Records, redactions and the Transparency Act
The report also criticised the government’s handling of Epstein-related records after the Epstein Files Transparency Act became law in November 2025, which ordered the Justice Department to publicly release all unclassified records about the case.
The committee said the department communicated inadequately about the document releases, made incomplete disclosures, and applied redactions that exposed sensitive information belonging to survivors. Its recommendations include a proper process for survivors to access their personal files without redactions. The Daily BS’s breakdown of the findings highlights the same call for the Justice Department to establish that process and keep interviewing key witnesses.
The committee’s review of the documents did not identify any that would implicate President Donald Trump, the report concluded.
What happens next
The report lands at a moment of transition for the committee itself. After the Democrats’ projected House majority in the 2026 midterms, the Oversight Committee is set to be chaired by a Democrat from January, raising questions about whether the new leadership will press the Justice Department to act on the report’s recommendations or take the inquiry in a different direction. The transition follows a House Republicans’ leadership contest that settled the party’s minority leadership, and it comes amid warnings about planned Democratic investigations from the White House counsel.
The report’s central demand is clear: the Justice Department should renew its examination of Epstein’s associates, finish interviewing the witnesses the committee identified, and ensure survivors can see their own files. Whether the department acts on those recommendations will be the next test of a case that has already spanned two decades, two administrations and a congressional investigation.
