Epstein case: US Congress committee points to institutional failures
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on L’essentiel
A US Congress investigative committee concluded on Tuesday that institutional failures allowed Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to evade justice for a long time. Democrats say they are ready to summon the powerful, including Donald Trump, according to L’essentiel.
An investigative committee of the US House of Representatives pointed on Tuesday to "institutional failures" in the judicial proceedings against the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. According to its 137-page report, these flaws, combined with powerful networks of influence, long allowed them to "evade justice".
The committee, chaired by Republican Congressman James Comer, who is close to President Donald Trump, criticises in particular an agreement reached in 2007 between Epstein’s lawyers and the federal prosecutor in Florida. That agreement had allowed the financier to have federal charges dropped in exchange for a minimal conviction for prostitution offences. According to the report, the prosecutor’s use of it "undoubtedly allowed Epstein to continue his horrible acts for years with no recourse".
The committee’s ranking Democrat, Robert Garcia, denounced the hasty publication of a report he considers partisan, "based on an incomplete investigation and no public hearing". The committee investigated for more than a year how the justice system and political leaders handled the case.
Donald Trump had promised revelations on this case during the 2024 campaign. His government announced in July 2025 that it had found no new evidence justifying the release of further documents, which provoked criticism, including from within his own camp. A law passed by Congress then forced it to release more than three million pages of the file.
The report comes as the Democrats, winners of the midterm elections, say they are ready to summon "the powerful, including Trump", according to L’essentiel. It is part of the sequence opened by the Democratic victory in the midterms, which Donald Trump commented on on 8 November.
