DOJ faces Friday deadline to release Epstein files as lawmakers push for transparency
Congress may be winding down for the year, but senators are making one last push for the Trump administration to follow the law and release its trove of files and...
By Fox News · Fox News
Congress may be winding down for the year, but senators are making one last push for the Trump administration to follow the law and release its trove of files and documents related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein . Lawmakers last month passed legislation that compels the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all materials related to Epstein, and the deadline is Friday. Senate Democrats are already prepared to act in case the DOJ doesn’t follow through. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y., warned that if the administration withholds documents, or abuses "narrow exemptions to hide the truth," there would be legal and political consequences. SENATE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES EPSTEIN FILES BILL, SENDS TO TRUMP'S DESK "Stop hiding, stop delaying," Schumer said. "Come clean with the American people. And if you don't, the question will only get louder and louder and louder. Trump, ‘What the hell are you trying to hide?’" Trump signed the bill shortly after it passed unanimously in the Senate — at Schumer’s behest — and it easily glided through the House. Prior to the vote, Trump shifted his position to backing the release of the documents after a firestorm erupted in Congress, particularly the House, for several months after the FBI announced that it "is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted," of materials related to the late financier after reviewing troves of documents in the DOJ’s possession. The bill requires that the DOJ release all unclassified records related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell , known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death. SCHUMER SAYS HE'LL MOVE TO PASS EPSTEIN BILL 'IMMEDIATELY' IN SENATE There are some instances where the DOJ could choose to withhold certain…