The House Democrat leading the charge to force the Justice Department to release all its files on the notorious Jeffrey Epstein case predicted in an exclusive interview with The Post this week that what comes out will “shock the conscience of this country.”
“I think it’s one of the most disgusting, offensive scandals in our history,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said ahead of Tuesday’s vote, in which the House of Representatives is expected to vote overwhelmingly to compel the Trump administration to make all files public on the late pedophile.
The Silicon Valley lawmaker added that he was “not sure” whether there will be evidence in the files to charge anyone with crimes related to Epstein and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s grooming and sexual abuse of hundreds of victims — including girls as young as 14.
“But what I do think will happen is there will be accountability for some of the wealthiest people in the world who are raping America’s young girls, abusing America’s women on a scale we’ve never seen before,” said Khanna, 49.
On Wednesday, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee released 20,000 documents obtained from the estate of Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Those documents shed new light on the extent of Epstein’s relationship with the likes of former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, discredited author Michael Wolff, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — the former Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
“I want to see the emails that Epstein had with some of these other rich and powerful people,” Khanna said when asked what he hoped the files would turn up. “I want to see the photographs that were on his computer. I want to see … who were the other men who engaged either in sex trafficking or actually visited the Epstein island [Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands], who were the men and women who may have known about Epstein’s abuse and yet were taking money from him and still going to dinner parties with him and still emailing with him.
“And I want to know why some of these people still have universities named after them, why they still have scholarships named after them, why they are still in positions of power,” he went on. “There needs to be a reckoning in this country.”
Summers, the former president of Harvard University and National Economic Council director under Barack Obama, announced Monday that he would step back from his public commitments after last week’s release revealed he exchanged emails with Epstein until just before the financier’s arrest in July 2019 — even asking the pervert for advice about dealing with women.
Follow The Post’s coverage on the Jeffrey Epstein files, Ghislaine Maxwell, and more
- Epstein emails with ex-Obama lawyer claim he stopped talking to Bill Clinton
- Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva to be sworn in Wednesday – expected to force a vote on release of Epstein files
- Sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell to ask Trump admin to commute prison sentence, House Dems claim
- House Dems summon Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to answer questions about ‘long-standing’ friendship with Epstein
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” Summers said in a statement. “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”
Last week, Trump directed the Justice Department to probe Epstein’s ties with Summers, former President Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats and institutions.
Attorney General Pam Bondi subsequently announced that US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton would oversee the investigation “with urgency and integrity.”
Over the weekend, Trump called on House Republicans to vote to release the files, claiming “we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.”
