Press Releases
|
December 02, 2025
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records subpoenaed by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:25-cv-04123 )).
Judicial Watch sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to an August 22, 2025, FOIA request for:
- All records provided to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform or any member thereof in response to the subpoena transmitted to Attorney General Bondi on or about August 5, 2025.
- All records relied upon during the preparation of any response to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoena transmitted to Attorney General Bondi on or about August 5, 2025.
- All records of communication between Attorney General Bondi or Deputy Attorney General Blanche and any other individual or entity regarding the Department’s response to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoena transmitted to Attorney General Bondi on or about August 5, 2025.
In August 2025, James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, issued deposition subpoenas to former high-level officials including Bill and Hillary Clinton; former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland; and former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey — seeking testimony and documents related to the investigation of Epstein. Additionally, a subpoena was issued to the Justice Department for records related to Epstein. For example, the subpoena cover letter to Gonzales states:
On July 23, 2025, the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (“Committee”) unanimously voted to approve a motion directing the Committee to authorize and issue a subpoena to you for a deposition. Your tenure as U.S. Attorney General, from 2005 to late 2007, coincided with a time period when the FBI investigated Jeffrey Epstein for sex crimes, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida prepared a draft 60-count indictment of Mr. Epstein, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida offered a plea bargain to Mr. Epstein, leading to the signing of Mr. Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement only one week after you left office. Pursuant to this direction, please see the attached subpoena for you to appear at a deposition on August 26, 2025.
On July 6, 2019, federal authorities arrested Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and two days later an indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District for New York charging him with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. According to the indictment, Mr. Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, and other locations. Among other things, the indictment alleged that Mr. Epstein enticed girls as young as 14 years old to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money. This was not the first time that Mr. Epstein had been investigated for committing sex crimes. In 2008, he pled guilty in Florida state court to two prostitution offenses, and, in exchange, he and his co-conspirators received immunity from federal prosecution through a non-prosecution agreement that was negotiated during your time as Attorney General.
“The Justice Department should immediately release the information we requested regarding Epstein,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Americans deserve the truth. It’s time to end the leaks and the guessing games.”
Judicial Watch has been actively pursuing details of the Epstein case.
In October, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for records involving any role Epstein might have played in connection with the agency, his business dealings, travel, victim or witness information, and records concerning his death.
In September, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for communication the department had with the media outlet Axios regarding the outlet’s “exclusives” on the release of audio of then-President Joe Biden’s August 2023 interview with then-Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding Biden’s handling of secret documents and the July 2025 memo that states there is no Jeffrey Epstein “client list.”
In a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit, a “joint status report” filed on July 7 in federal court reported that the Justice Department and the FBI were continuing to search for and review records in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA lawsuit for records regarding Epstein. The lawsuit requests any records on the identities of clients or associates of Epstein. The Justice Department’s disclosure is at odds with the leaked, unsigned and undated Justice Department/FBI memo that suggests no more Epstein records would be disclosed to the American public. The memo was first disclosed late on July 6.
Also in July, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for all interviews and other records provided to the FBI by Epstein victim Virginia Louise Giuffre, who reportedly committed suicide on April 25, 2025.
###
