Lawmakers can sue to ensure release of Epstein files, but not as part of
Maxwell case, judge says
[January 22, 2026]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — Congressional cosponsors of a law forcing the Justice
Department to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
can file a lawsuit seeking a court-appointed observer to ensure
compliance, but they lack the legal right to append their demand to her
criminal case, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer blocked U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep.
Thomas Massie, R-Ky. from intervening in Maxwell’s sex trafficking case.
The lawmakers, whose Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law
by President Donald Trump in November, petitioned the judge last week in
a bid to speed the public disclosure of files related to investigations
into the late financier and Maxwell, his longtime confidant.
Engelmayer largely agreed with the Justice Department’s insistence that
he, as the judge overseeing Maxwell’s case, had no authority to grant
Khanna and Massie’s request for an independent monitor to ensure the
immediate release of more than 2 million documents that the government
has identified as investigative materials.
Khanna and Massie said the slow disclosure of the documents violated the
law and had caused “serious trauma to survivors.”
Aside from the possibility of filing a lawsuit, the lawmakers are at
liberty to use their legislative tools to improve oversight of the
Justice Department, Engelmayer wrote. The Epstein law, passed after
months of public and political pressure, contains no mechanisms or
penalties to ensure compliance.
“We appreciate Judge Engelmayer’s timely response and attention to our
request, and we respect his decision," Khanna said in a statement. "He
said that we raised ‘legitimate concerns’ about whether DOJ is complying
with the law. We will continue to use every legal option to ensure the
files are released and the survivors see justice.”
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After missing a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress to release all of
the files, the Justice Department said it has had hundreds of
lawyers reviewing yet-to-be-disclosed records to determine what
needs to be redacted, or blacked out, to protect the identities of
hundreds of sex abuse victims. So far, only about 12,000 documents
have been made public.
Engelmayer said questions raised by Khanna and Massie raised about
whether the department was complying with the law were “undeniably
important and timely.” But, he said, the way in which the members of
Congress were trying to intervene was not permitted.
Engelmayer inherited Maxwell’s case after the trial judge, Alison
Nathan, was appointed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He
ruled that has no authority to supervise the department’s compliance
with the new law, and that Massie and Khanna have no standing, or
legal right, to insinuate themselves into Maxwell’s case.
Engelmayer said he has received letters and emails from Epstein
abuse survivors in support of the lawmakers' request for appointment
of a neutral overseer.
“These express concern that DOJ otherwise will not comply with the
Act,” wrote the judge, who was nominated by Democratic President
Barack Obama.
The department has been “paying ‘lip service’ to the victims” and
“failing to treat us ‘with the solicitude’ we deserve,” survivors
wrote, according to Engelmayer.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her December 2021
sex trafficking conviction. She recently petitioned the federal
court for her release, maintaining that new information has emerged
that warrants her release. A jury found that she had helped to
recruit girls for Epstein to abuse over the past quarter-century and
had also participated in some of the abuse.
Epstein died in a federal jail in New York in August 2019 as he
awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The death was ruled a
suicide.
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