DOJ withholding Epstein files would be a 'crime,' says Republican

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky says "it's a crime" if the Department of Justice doesn't release the Epstein files by the Dec. 19 deadline.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky spoke with reporters Friday, where he was asked what would happen if the Department of Justice fails to release the long-promised Epstein files by its Dec. 19 deadline. 

 

Massie: Well, I mean, it's a crime if they don't. It's not like they're in contempt of Congress because they didn't respond to a subpoena. This is a new law with criminal implications if they don't follow it. But I was encouraged, again, by the fact that they went back to these three judges and got the judges to release the grand jury material to the DOJ.

Reporter: Is that grand jury material enough, do you think, to comply with the law?

Massie: No, the grand jury material is just a small fraction of what the DOJ needs to release because the FBI and DOJ probably has evidence that they chose not to take to the grand jury because the evidence they're in possession of would implicate other people, not Epstein or [Ghislaine] Maxwell. So the grand jury material is probably going to just be mostly facts and evidence that was used to convict those two, and what we want to see are the facts and evidence that the FBI and the DOJ have never given to a grand jury.

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Related | Trump signs bill to release Jeffrey Epstein case files after fighting it for months

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