New York — A judge lacks the authority to appoint an impartial expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking investigation of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan said Friday.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a letter signed by US Attorney Jay Clayton that he should reject a request this week by congressional sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, say they have “urgent and serious concerns” about the slow release of only a small number of millions of documents that began last month.
In a filing they submitted to the judge, they said they believed “criminal violations had occurred” in the release process.
However, Clayton said Khanna and Massey did not have standing with the court to seek “extraordinary” relief by appointing a special master and independent monitor.
Engelmayer said he “lacks the authority” to approve such a request, especially since the congressional representatives who made the request are not parties to the criminal case that led to Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction in December 2021 and subsequent 20-year prison sentence for allegedly recruiting girls and women for Epstein to abuse and assist in the abuse.
Khanna said Clayton’s response “misunderstood” the intent of their request.
“We informed the court of serious misconduct by the Department of Justice that requires a remedy, which we believe this court has the authority to provide, and which the victims themselves have requested,” Khanna said in a statement.
He added: “Our goal is to ensure that the Ministry of Justice complies with its representations before the court and with its legal obligations under our law.”
Epstein died in a federal prison in New York City in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.
Clayton said in the letter that the Justice Department expects to update the court “again soon” on its progress in turning over documents from the investigative files on Epstein and Maxwell.
The Justice Department said the release of the files was slowed by redactions required to protect the identities of victims of abuse.
Khanna and Massey wrote in their letter that the Justice Department’s release of just 12,000 documents out of more than 2 million under review was a “flagrant violation” of the law’s requirements and caused “serious trauma to survivors.”
“The Department of Justice simply cannot be trusted to provide mandatory disclosure under the law,” the lawmakers said while calling for the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure that all electronically stored documents and information are made public immediately.
They also recommended that a court-appointed monitor be given the authority to prepare reports on the true nature and extent of the document’s production and whether redactions or inappropriate behavior occurred.
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