NPR’s Leila Fadel asks Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California about politicians’ demands that the Justice Department release more files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
LEILA FADEL, PRESENTER:
OK. We now turn to one of the members of Congress who co-sponsored the legislation mandating the release of these Department of Justice documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Ro Khanna is a Democrat from California. Congressman, thank you for returning to the program and good morning.
RO KHANNA: Good morning.
FADEL: So you have called this most recent statement a bombshell, citing in particular a reference to 10 co-conspirators. What do you look at in the files that you see as a bombshell?
KHANNA: The fact that there is an email that says there are 10 co-conspirators means that there are other rich and powerful men who were involved. Many skeptics have said this is a hoax: that only Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were involved in the abuse. I know from talking to survivors that that’s not true. They have named other men who went to rape island, abused them, or covered up that abuse. This is in the statements to the FBI, the 302 statements, and that’s what we’re pushing to get released. But we received an email that at least said there were 10 other accomplices.
FADEL: Now, you said – to expand on what you want made public, you said you want to see FBI witness interviews, who name other men, Epstein’s emails seized from his computers, the 60-count draft indictment and the 82-page charging memo. You know, just tell me what you’re looking for in these particular documents that you want, that leads you to want them to be public. What are you looking for in these documents?
KHANNA: The most important are the FBI witness interviews. I know from survivors and survivors’ attorneys that when they had these conversations with FBI agents, they specifically named other men who were trafficked…
FADEL: Yes.
KHANNA: …Either who showed up on the island or who covered up this abuse. And the survivors’ lawyers were present there. There are dozens of these interview memos. The Justice Department has not released a single one. In fact, in one case, the Department of Justice illegally released a survivor’s name, but did not release the record the survivor wanted. The draft 60-count indictment shows just how botched Epstein’s prosecution was. He was only prosecuted on two charges. So we need that. And the emails on the computer that Jeffrey Epstein had are… those are his emails to other men, arranging traffic, arranging flights to the island. None of that has come out.
FADEL: We have already far exceeded last Friday’s deadline to publish all the files established by your legislation. What do you think of the Justice Department’s argument that it takes time because they need to examine every document to avoid inadvertently identifying victims?
KHANNA: Well, frankly, they haven’t done a good job. I mean, they’ve inadvertently freed too many survivors. But both Thomas Massie and I have said that we are less obsessed with the question of time. We are more concerned that they follow the spirit of the law in good faith, and they have not done so. If they released an interview memo of 302 FBI witnesses, that would be fine. If they released the draft of the 60-count indictment, that would be fine. That doesn’t take long and the law explicitly requires that they publish internal communications about whether or not to collect. So they’re protecting people, and the president made it clear who they’re trying to protect. He is worried that people will be harmed by his reputation: that powerful bankers and politicians are in these files. And that’s true, and that’s the purpose of the law, to have public accountability for them. But frankly, the Justice Department seems determined to protect them more than the survivors.
FADEL: Now, both you and Republican Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of this legislation, have talked about initiating, quote, “inherent contempt” proceedings against Attorney General Pam Bondi. What would that be like? What is inherent contempt?
KHANNA: Well, we have Republican support, some Republican support as well. We would give the attorney general a 30-day grace period to continue releasing documents to comply. And after those 30 days, you would start receiving a $5,000 fine personally for documents you don’t disclose. We also plan to go to the Southern District of New York and ask the judge who ordered these releases to have a special judge to see what should be redacted or not redacted or to create a congressional committee, a bipartisan committee, to see what should be redacted or not.
FADEL: Is it realistic, however, for something like this to be approved by the House? I mean, the House hasn’t passed inherent contempt charges against anyone since the 1930s, and this House in particular seems unable to agree on much.
KHANNA: Well, people thought it was very unrealistic for us to get the discharge petition approved. That hasn’t happened for decades either. We know we have some Republican support. And the thing is, because we have Republican support, the Justice Department started to back down. An hour after Massie and I announced that they began releasing redacted documents in an unredacted format, they made a second release of documents that had that email about the 10 co-conspirators. They are…
FADEL: We’ll have to leave it there. Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, thank you. He is the co-sponsor of the Epstein Archives Transparency Act.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Please visit the terms of use and permissions pages of our website at www.npr.org for more information.
The accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. The transcript text can be revised to correct errors or match updates to the audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authorized record of NPR programming is the audio record.