Khanna: Epstein files should be one of Democrats’ ‘highest priorities’ if congressional control changes

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said Monday the government’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should be one of the “highest priorities” for Democrats if they retake control of Congress after the November midterm elections.

“This is not about politics,” Khanna told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on “The Arena.” “This is about survivors who have been denied justice for decades. And this is about a group of wealthy and powerful men who either raped or trafficked or abused young girls and have not paid the price, have not had any consequence.”

Khanna said he and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), with whom he authored and led the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act last November before President Trump signed it into law, “have an Epstein 2.0 bill” that they expect will get passed.

“We already have 218 signatures, and we need to empower the attorney generals to be able to prosecute,” the California Democrat told Hunt. “And we need to demand the Department of Justice begin prosecutions.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also indicated that the outcome of the midterms could determine any future investigations into Epstein and the Trump administration’s handling of their release.

“The Epstein cover-up is on the ballot,” Jeffries told Spectrum News on Monday. “The failure of this administration to actually keep its promise.”

Khanna and Massie said earlier this month that they have the 218 signatures needed from lawmakers to push legislation that would strengthen the enforcement of the original law. Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) joined Democrats in backing the petition.

Mace was among four other Republicans who sided with Khanna and Massie in forcing the House to vote on the previous Epstein files-related law.

Dubbed the Epstein Files Transparency Act II and introduced in July, it would give state attorneys general, Epstein victims and local prosecutors the ability to sue Attorney General Todd Blanche if anything withheld, from redactions to document releases, is deemed unlawful.

The two lawmakers sharply criticized Blanche’s predecessor, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, over the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of the files last year. Bondi pointed the finger at Blanche when interviewed by congressional investigators about the release of the Epstein files in May.

“We need to ask every single candidate running in the midterms, ‘Do you support the Massie-Khanna/Epstein 2.0 Transparency Act?'” Khanna said in a video posted to the social platform X earlier this month.

Democrats also used news about the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files late last year as part of their counterprogramming during the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month, The Washington Post reported .

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee who has pressured the DOJ to release more documents related to Epstein, was among other Democrats who met with Epstein survivors in Dallas during the convention, according to the Post. The lawmakers called for greater transparency and vowed to investigate the administration should they win back the House majority.