House report urges renewed Epstein investigation

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee released a report on November 10 concluding that federal investigators and prosecutors failed to prevent Jeffrey Epstein from continuing to abuse women and girls after 2005. The committee called on the Justice Department to renew parts of its investigation and improve survivors’ access to records.

The report followed a 15-month inquiry that included 19 interviews and depositions, financial records, and materials from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate. Its central finding was that failures by authorities, including a 2007 nonprosecution agreement negotiated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state charges and received an 18-month sentence with work-release privileges. The report said abuse continued while he was serving that sentence.

The committee also faulted prosecutors for not notifying survivors about the agreement, and criticized the Justice Department’s handling of records released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. It said deficient redactions exposed some survivors’ sensitive personal information, while other...