Democrats in the United States have used an obscure law to stifle President Donald Trump’s administration and base in an effort to maintain the pressure on the president.
The disgraced financier, who passed away in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial, has been receiving increasingly strong demands from the White House.
The president reportedly “stole” employees from the spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, prompting questions to be raised about his previous relationships with Epstein on Tuesday when he claimed to have fallen for his ex-friend.
The Department of Justice rebuffed conspiracy theories about the alleged complicity of prominent Democrats that prominent members of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement had been pushing for years when it claimed Epstein had died by suicide and had no “client list.”
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Democrats from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee wrote to the Justice Department asking for the documents contained in a “rule of five” provision of federal law.
Government departments are required to provide relevant information if requested by any five members of the Senate’s chief watchdog panel. The measure was introduced one century ago but is rarely used.
Even if the effort fails, it maintains the focus on an issue that has divided Trump’s party and caused the House of Representatives to be closed early.
In an effort to lessen the outcry, Trump’s administration demanded that two judges give grand jury indictments of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges.
Federal prosecutors said in late-night court filings on Tuesday that it would be appropriate to release the documents given the “abundant public interest” in the case of Epstein and Maxwell, a now-imprisoned British socialite.
Trump supporters were enraged
If Trump were to win, Trump threatened to release information about Epstein-related files, accusing Democrats of lying. Trump’s supporters are now angry that the Justice Department has now stated that the previously touted Epstein client list did not actually exist.
The department first requested on July 18 to release the grand jury testimony that witnesses gave years prior to the two cases, but Manhattan-based US District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer requested that the government provide additional legal justifications.
Even if one or both of the judges made the transcripts public, it is unclear whether Epstein’s or his girlfriend Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021, would learn anything new or noteworthy about them.
Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison, has also been asked to testify.
If given immunity for her testimony, Maxwell’s attorney has stated that she would testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
According to a spokesman for the panel, “Ms. Maxwell’s attorney will respond to the Oversight Committee soon, but it won’t consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.”
Democrats have also repeatedly attempted to use the votes on the Epstein files to support unrelated bills, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson to send lawmakers home for the summer from his office last week to avoid having them succeed.
While campaigning, Donald Trump said he would release the Epstein documents. In a speech on Tuesday on the Senate floor, Schumer said, “He made that promise, but he hasn’t fulfilled it.”
According to the filings, an FBI agent was the only witness present at Epstein’s grand jury, according to the prosecution. According to the prosecution, the only witnesses before Maxwell’s grand jury were that same agent and a detective from the New York City Police Department.
In addition to the public testimony of sex trafficking victims, Epstein and Maxwell’s associates, and law enforcement officials, Maxwell’s four-week trial in 2021 drew.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply