WASHINGTON — The fallout over President Donald Trump’s handling of financier and Florida sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case files permeated business on Capitol Hill Thursday, as Senate Democrats urged release of the information.
Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, Florida, a top Department of Justice official interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and a key figure in the growing controversy.
David O. Markus, lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, speaks to reporters outside the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, July 24, 2025. (Video by Christine Sexton/Florida Phoenix)
Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary accused their Republican counterparts on the panel of “concealing the Epstein files” after they voted to quash an amendment from New Jersey’s Sen. Cory Booker, who proposed tying the start date of an opioid data collection bill to the release of Epstein case material.
The committee’s tumult came a day after U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson sent his members home early for their six-week August break to avoid voting on efforts by both House Democrats and Republicans to make the files public.
Before heading back to their districts, three House Republicans voted Wednesday with Democrats on a House Committee on Oversight panel to subpoena the Department of Justice to turn over all Epstein investigation records. GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Brian Jack of Georgia voted in favor of the push led by Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee.
Earlier, House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky issued a subpoena for an Aug. 11 deposition with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida for conspiring with the financier to sexually abuse girls.
‘Lies and obfuscation’
Epstein died in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges for sex trafficking minors. He pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida for procuring and soliciting minors for sex.
The wealthy broker was surrounded by a powerful circle of friends, including Trump. Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the president in May that his name appeared among many others in the case files, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The context in which Trump’s name appears is unclear.
“We had the power today, the possibility today, to force out the truth regarding the Epstein files and the lies and the obfuscation that is happening by this administration,” Booker said after the GOP-led panel advanced an amendment offered by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas that rendered Booker’s effort moot.
Booker eventually withdrew his amendment after roughly 40 minutes of back-and-forth in the middle of a vote, and after Sen. Lindsey Graham vowed to help him with a separate funding issue related to the underlying bill to address opioid overdose deaths.
“What we’re trying to do with this bill is really good, and there’s no end to this (Epstein debate). If this is a headline about ‘Cornyn blocks transparency of Epstein,’ then that would be sad because he’s responding to your amendment that would make the bill, quite frankly, fail,” said the South Carolina Republican. “I don’t think it’s helpful.”
Schumer calls for private Senate briefing
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also put a spotlight on the Epstein case in his floor remarks Thursday, calling for the Trump administration to provide a closed-door briefing for all senators on details uncovered during the Epstein investigation, including whose names appeared in relation to the sex offender.
“The Senate deserves to hear directly from senior administration officials about Donald Trump’s name appearing in these files and the complete lack of transparency shown to date,” Schumer said.
Trump and his supporters, including some now working in his administration, dealt in conspiracy theories for years on the information surrounding the Epstein case, including whose names turned up during the investigation and the circumstances of his death.
A July 7 Department of Justice memo poured cold water on the fervor, declaring no incriminating “client list” exists and that officials would not be releasing any materials because of the risk of revealing victim identities. The department concluded Epstein harmed over 1,000 victims.
Trump answered swift and sharp criticism from his voter base by calling them “weaklings” for falling for a “Jeffrey Epstein hoax” in several social media posts.
In lieu of releasing the files, he ordered the unsealing of grand jury testimony in the case, which a Florida federal judge blocked Wednesday.
The president also told reporters that it was “appropriate” for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former criminal defense lawyer, to interview Maxwell.
Interview at Florida federal courthouse
Blanche traveled to Florida, where reporters Thursday waited at the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Tallahassee, where the U.S. attorney’s office is located.
The courthouse is about 4 miles from the city’s Federal Correctional Institution, where Maxwell is serving time.
Blanche arrived around 9 a.m. Eastern at the courthouse, according to media reports. Maxwell’s appellate lawyer, David O. Markus, told ABC News, “We’re looking forward to a productive day” and declined further comment.
Markus, a Miami-based attorney with the firm Markus/Moss PLLC, emerged just before 4 p.m. Eastern and told news media outside the courthouse, including the Florida Phoenix, that Blanche “took a full day and asked a lot of questions, and Ms. Maxwell answered every single question.”
“She never invoked a privilege, she never declined to answer. She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability, and that’s all the comment we’re going to have about the meeting. We don’t want to comment on the substance of the meeting for obvious reasons,” Markus said.
Christine Sexton reported from Tallahassee.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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