House to Vote on Second Epstein Files Transparency Act After Oversight Committee Report on the Federal Government’s Mishandling of Epstein Criminal Investigation * The Gateway Pundit * by Jordan Conradson

The House of Representatives is set to vote on a second Epstein files bill after lawmakers forced a vote through a discharge petition. 

Politico reports that Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) signed the 218th signature on the petition to force a vote on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)’s Epstein Files Transparency Act II.

Only four Republicans, Thomas Massie, Nancy Mace (SC), Ralph Norman (SC), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), signed the discharge petition.

Previously, Massie’s Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed and signed into law, requiring the Justice Department to release the Epstein files to the public.

However, some lawmakers accuse the Justice Department of redacting or withholding over 2.5 million pages of documents.

Politico reports the new bill “allows survivors of Epstein’s abuse and state attorneys general to file federal lawsuits against the Justice Department to force the release of additional materials related to Epstein, among other measures. It also gives members of Congress the ability to demand unredacted files from the department.

This comes after the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released a 137-page report on its 15-month investigation, titled “A Review of the Federal Government’s Mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell Criminal Investigations.”

The investigation involved 19 transcribed interviews and depositions with witnesses and Epstein affiliates, as well as documents from the Department of Justice, Epstein’s estate, and financial records.

It highlights the Department of Justice’s failures during investigations into Epstein’s crimes back in the early 2000s, the “systemic dysfunction” in the Bureau of Prisons that resulted in his death, and the DOJ’s failures to “adequately communicate about document releases” and to “sufficiently protect survivors” with its release of the Epstein files last year.

CBS reports:

The committee’s top Democrat, Robert Garcia, criticized the report, saying it’s “based on an incomplete investigation and zero public hearings.”

“We will not allow the President and his allies to dismiss this investigation. We intend to hold real public hearings uplifting survivors and asking tough questions of the powerful men who associated with Epstein, including Donald Trump. Our work is just getting started,” Garcia said in a statement to press.

The report concluded that a “willful ignorance” extended from Epstein’s closest employees — his longtime lawyer, accountant and personal assistant, who combined carried out the nitty gritty details of arranging daily massages and managing his “black book” of names — to Epstein’s most powerful friends, “who, in the face of numerous red flags, claimed that they never suspected Epstein was abusing women or committing crimes of any kind.”

This is a developing story.