NEW YORK, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has asked a New York federal judge to deny a request by two lawmakers seeking an appointment of a special master to monitor the public release of records tied to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Justice Department since December has been releasing caches of documents tied to its investigations of Epstein. But U.S. Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie have criticized the department's slow pace.
Khanna, a California Democrat, and Massie, a Kentucky Republican, last week said they asked U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer to permit them to file a brief that would argue for the appointment of a special master and independent monitor, given the Justice Department's failure to fully comply with a law that requires the DOJ to release all records related to Epstein by December 19.
In a six-page letter filed on Friday to U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blancheargued that Khanna and Thomas Massie are not parties to the U.S. v. Ghislaine Maxwell case involving Epstein and should not be allowed to file a friend of the court request in the matter.
"Representatives Khanna and Massie do not have standing, their stated objectives are in-consistent with the role of an amicus as well as the role of the Court, and, in any event, there is no authority permitting the Court to grant the Representatives the relief they improperly seek," the DOJ said in the letter signed by Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Maxwellis serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
The Justice Department said at the end of 2025 that it had 5.2 million pages of Epstein files left to review and needs 400 lawyers from four different department offices to help with the process through late January.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul)
