US House committee releases new Epstein documents

WASHINGTON

The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released more documents Tuesday as part of an investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The committee, chaired by Republican Rep. James Comer, released the transcript of former Attorney General William Barr’s deposition.

During his closed-door testimony with committee members in August, Barr was asked if he recalled informing President Donald Trump that he was in the Justice Department’s files on Epstein.

"I didn't have that kind of conversation with him," he said, according to the transcript.

Multiple reports published indicated that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in files related to Epstein. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the May meeting.

Barr told lawmakers that he only remembered two conversations he had with Trump on Epstein.

"One was when I heard about the suicide. I called him up and said, 'You better brace for this,' and I told him words to that effect, and I told him about it and told him we were going to be investigating it very vigorously," he said, according to the transcript.

Epstein also came up in a separate conversation involving several individuals, though Barr said he couldn’t recall when it took place.

"And the President said something to the effect that he had broken off with Epstein long ago and that he had actually pushed him out of Mar-a-Lago," Barr said.

The committee also revealed letters from former Attorneys General Alberto Gonzalez and Jeff Sessions that deny having any knowledge relevant to the committee’s probe of the federal government’s investigation into Epstein and his convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Comer sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson summarizing its ongoing probe.

There are bipartisan congressional efforts to force the release of all federal documents related to the Epstein case.

Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking minors in New York and Florida and had pleaded not guilty.