Epstein files: Over 33K pages released by House Oversight Committee

WASHINGTON - The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday released over 33,000 documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. 

The records were provided by the Department of Justice.

What they're saying:

"On August 5, Chairman Comer issued a subpoena for records related to Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, and the Department of Justice has indicated it will continue producing those records while ensuring the redaction of victim identities and any child sexual abuse material," according to the committee website.

The Justice Department released the files to the committee in response to a subpoena, but Democrats on the committee have said the files mostly contain information that was already publicly known.

What's in the files? 

Dig deeper:

The files released Tuesday included audio of an Epstein employee describing to a law enforcement official how "there were a lot of girls that were very, very young" visiting the home but couldn’t say for sure if they were minors.

Over the course of Epstein’s visits to the home, the man said, more than a dozen girls might visit, and he was charged with cleaning the room where Epstein had massages, twice daily.

Some pages were almost entirely redacted. Other documents related to Epstein’s Florida prosecution that led to a plea deal that has long been criticized as too lenient, including emails between the defense and prosecutors over the conditions of his probation after his conviction. Barbara Burns, a Palm Beach County prosecutor, expressed frustration as the defense pushed for fewer restrictions on their client: "I don’t know how to convey to him anymore than I already have that his client is a registered sex offender that was fortunate to get the deal of the century."

Some of the interviews with officers from the Palm Beach Police Department date to 2005, according to timestamps read out by officials at the beginning of the files.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, chided Republicans on the panel for releasing material that he said consisted almost entirely of already available information.

"The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to ‘release’ were already mostly public information. To the American people — don’t let this fool you," Garcia said in a statement.

Most notable was the probable cause affidavit and other records from the 2005 investigation into Epstein. These contained a notation indicating that they’d been previously released in a 2017 public records request. An internet search showed those files were posted to the website of the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office in July 2017.