The New York Times reports:

When House Republican leaders rushed to leave Washington for a long August break, they seemed desperate to quell the anger among their supporters about the Trump administration’s backtracking on a promise to release files related to its investigation of the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

But halfway through a five-week congressional recess, the clamor shows little sign of quieting. While Republicans had hoped that legal rulings might insulate them from having to confront the issue, the courts have yet to intervene. Back in their districts, lawmakers have continued to face questions about the Epstein investigation from their constituents. And the Justice Department, which ignored a Friday deadline from Senate Democrats and faces another on Tuesday to comply with a bipartisan subpoena to provide the materials to Congress, has yet to release anything.

At the same time, Democrats, in some cases with the help of Republicans, have laid a series of procedural traps that will make it all but impossible for the G.O.P. to avoid confronting the Epstein issue again when Congress reconvenes in September.

“We’re going to keep the pressure up — 100 percent,” Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, said at an event in Iowa this month. “As often as we can, until we know exactly what happened, why it happened.”

Even with Congress in recess, the issue continues to generate attention in Washington. On Monday, William P. Barr, who was President Trump’s attorney general when Mr. Epstein died, testified in a closed-door deposition for the House Oversight Committee.

Lawmakers of both parties concede that the Trump administration could quiet the furor over the Epstein files on Capitol Hill and nationwide by simply releasing them to the public. But so far, the Justice Department has offered little public indication that it might do so. [Continue reading…]

HuffPost reports:

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Monday the Justice Department would soon begin handing over some of its material on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“Officials with the Department of Justice have informed us that the Department will begin to provide Epstein-related records to the Oversight Committee this week on Friday,” Comer said in a press release.

It’s a significant development after the Trump administration said last month it would not release any material relating to its prosecution of Epstein, who died in jail after being indicted in 2019 for sex trafficking minors.

The committee issued a subpoena for the material earlier this month following a surprising bipartisan vote during a right-wing uproar over the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files.

Comer cautioned that the material wouldn’t come out quickly, however, and it’s not clear what the committee might ultimately make public. [Continue reading…]