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With only six legislative days left on the House calendar for the rest of the year, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee Friday decided to drop a trove of new photos the committee received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein.
The photos specifically show the late convicted sex offender with such famous faces as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Bill Gates, former president Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. In particular, one photo shows Trump, years before his first presidency, surrounded by six women. Trump has distanced himself from Epstein and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The selective release of the photos comes a full week before the legally mandated deadline for the Department of Justice to release all files related to Epstein. For those who may not remember, last month, Congress passed legislation to force the department to release the files within 30 days. The drop-dead date is next Friday.
Immediately after the votes on Friday, House members bolted for the weekend — and then Oversight Democrats dropped their oddly timed tranche of photos.
It came at a peculiar juncture. At the moment, Republicans are scrambling to try and find an alternative plan as enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace will expire at the end of the month. The Senate voted down a Republican proposal to give Americans money for health savings accounts and a Democratic effort to extend the Obamacare tax credits for three more years.
To boot, a handful of Republicans from swing districts filed a discharge petition – the very same legislative tool used to force a vote to release the Epstein files – to extend the credits for two more years.
As members filed out, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivered his weekly press conference, where he remained laser-focused on health care. When The Independent asked Jeffries about the images, he offered some boilerplate talking points.
“The so-called Department of Justice under the Trump administration, needs to comply with the law,” he said. “And we as Democrats, led by Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, are going to continue to make sure that we’re holding this administration accountable.”
Garcia won the race to become the top Democrat on Oversight earlier this year after the death of Gerry Connolly, beating out Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is now running for Senate in Texas. The former mayor of Long Beach has followed a pugnacious approach in his spot as the Democrats’ top attack dog on the committee.
“We will continue to put out more photos in the days and weeks ahead, but I just caution folks that the redaction process and ensure that we are protecting the survivors and the women who were abused by Epstein are protected,” he told reporters on the Capitol steps.
Alongside the Department of Justice having to release files related to Epstein, the committee is conducting its own investigation. And for a committee known for sharp elbows and partisan bickering, the investigation has remained surprisingly bipartisan. Congress is not only allowed to but expected to conduct its own investigations to make sure the executive branch does not simply police itself.
But the message seems to be a deviation from Democrats’ larger efforts to hang the impending doubling and tripling in health care premiums around the necks of Republicans. Despite Democrats not getting an extension of the credits during the shutdown, they successfully forced the issue of health care ahead of the 2026 midterms.
In addition, releasing some of the Epstein photos – including of sex toys – risks retraumatizing the survivors of his horrific actions.
Rather than focusing on the grooming efforts or the pyramid scheme to keep a steady pipeline of teenage girls coming to Epstein, the photos can likely just turn the investigation into another round of salacious headlines instead of justice for the now-grown women who fought so hard for this vote.
Democrats would argue they can walk and chew gum at the same time.
And, in their defense, Trump has dragged his feet on Epstein, going from calling it a hoax to bullying Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene out of her seat in Congress to saying there should be a unanimous vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson played possum with a vote for far too long, delaying the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva since she would provide the last signature to release the files.
But doing it on a Friday when everyone is leaving means Republicans can now coalesce around defending Trump instead of tripping over themselves on health care.
