Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Tuesday that he plans to view a tranche of unredacted Department of Justice (DOJ) files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
DOJ allowed members of Congress to review the unredacted versions of more than three million pages of publicly released Epstein files starting on Monday. The push to release the files was led by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), but lawmakers and victims had raised questions about how Justice Department officials had gone about redacting certain information.
When asked by MS NOW whether he has an interest in reviewing the files, Johnson said, “Of course I have an interest.”
“For me, it’s time. And I’ve got Chairman Comer and many of our colleagues that are going down to comb through that. Chairman Comer will go do it himself. I have a lot of faith in him and his ability and his team. The lawyers of oversight are going through it and members themselves, as you know. It’s unredacted and available to everybody. I intend to go down myself. Right now, I’m trying to keep the train on the tracks and we’ve got to do all this stuff simultaneously.”
Johnson also said he is “convinced” that the DOJ is “complying with everything they’re required to do.”
“We still have a pending report where they will give us, where they will formally explain why some of the redactions are made, but I think it’s a good move for them to put the millions of documents in the skiff so that members can go in and see and verify this for themselves. There’s some good work, good review being done on that. I applaud it. It’s important.”
Both Khanna and Massie had cosponsored legislation, dubbed the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” requiring the DOJ to release the Epstein files.
But several members of Congress had questioned whether the DOJ had fully complied with the law, which only allowed for narrow redactions, largely to protect the identities of victims.
The pair had argued after reviewing the unredacted files that they spotted at least six names of people who are “likely incriminated.” The DOJ ended up unredacting more names from the files this week, after pressure from lawmakers.