The top Republican running the congressional investigation into Jeffrey Epstein said Thursday that he agrees with Vice President JD Vance’s assessment that the Trump administration bungled the release of the Epstein files.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, told NOTUS on Thursday that “I agree with [Vance] 100%.” The comment marks a notable escalation of criticism by the House Republican and underscores frustration in the party over the White House’s handling of information around the disgraced financier.
“I think 99.9% of Americans would agree with what the vice president said,” Comer said. “It’s been handled poorly, but a lot of the information has never been shared.”
In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan this week, Vance said the White House “mishandled the Epstein release.” It was a rare break with the administration on a high-profile issue for Vance, but also a sign that the Epstein investigation remains a major frustration among conservatives.
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Comer said his panel would continue to seek “every document” from the Justice Department related to the investigation.
“They’ve said they’ve turned over every document they can legally turn over,” Comer said. “If you have documents you can’t legally turn over, explain to us why.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), a Trump foe who lost his primary in May in part because of a split with the White House over the Epstein files, said Vance is “trying to put daylight between himself and the White House to preserve his political viability in 2028.”
“It’s been political malpractice the way they’ve handled the Epstein files,” Massie said. “This is one of the worst issues for Republicans for their reelection in November.”
Trump has called the Epstein probe a “hoax” and dismissed the focus on the fallout as politically motivated.
The slow release of the Epstein files with redactions has puzzled many on Capitol Hill. Under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ released around 3.5 million files related to the Epstein investigation, but withheld more than 2 million pages, citing the privacy of victims, privileged information and other legally protected content.
Vance argued in the Rogan interview that Bondi set the expectations too high for the Epstein release, and that the administration “overstated what we had and what we didn’t have.”
“But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No,” Vance said.
Vance also defended President Donald Trump, saying “I’ve never seen a single piece of credible evidence that the president of the United States engaged in wrongdoing with minors ever.”
Comer defended his own investigation and applauded the release of the files that have seen the light of day so far.
“When we started this investigation, no one had ever seen any Epstein files,” Comer said. “The Biden administration didn’t release any, and now we’ve seen over 3 million Epstein files.”
The Epstein saga has also now turned into a potential hurdle to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation in the Senate. Bondi earlier this year told lawmakers that Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, was in charge of the release of the Epstein files.
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