A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has rejected a bipartisan effort by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) to appoint a special master or independent monitor to oversee the Department of Justice’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the DOJ to release all investigative materials related to Jeffrey Epstein by a December 19, 2025 deadline. The lawmakers argued that the department’s slow pace — with only a small fraction of millions of documents disclosed so far — and extensive redactions suggested noncompliance with the law and harmed survivors seeking transparency. They pressed Judge Paul Engelmayer to intervene in the matter of the files’ release, citing serious concerns about the DOJ’s handling of the disclosures.

In his ruling, Judge Engelmayer acknowledged that the issues Khanna and Massie raised were “undeniably important and timely” and highlighted genuine concerns about whether the DOJ is faithfully complying with federal law. However, he concluded that he does not have the legal authority or jurisdiction in the ongoing criminal proceedings involving Ghislaine Maxwell to oversee or enforce compliance with the civil transparency statute, since the matter of releasing records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act is not part of that criminal case. The judge said the lawmakers lack standing to intervene in this context and suggested they pursue other avenues of oversight outside the Maxwell case, such as civil litigation or congressional tools, leaving the oversight fight over the release of the files to proceed through political and legislative, rather than judicial, channels.

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