Idaho senator rebuffs Democratic claims he’s blocking release of Epstein files
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, center, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, right, sit on the Senate Finance Committee and are at odds over obtaining certain banking records tied to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Kelsey Grey Idaho Statesman file
Idaho’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Mike Crapo, is uniquely positioned to help decide what documents are unearthed and released concerning Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious wealthy financier federally indicted on charges of sex trafficking dozens of girls.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Crapo maintains congressional oversight of the Treasury Department, which holds thousands of records that reveal more than $1 billion in transactions for one of Epstein’s bank accounts, according to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Crapo’s Democratic peer on the same committee.
Hundreds of millions more were transferred in and out of other accounts connected to Epstein, Wyden said.
Epstein, 66, died by suicide while jailed in New York City in August 2019 awaiting trial on his sex trafficking charges, the Justice Department and FBI confirmed earlier this year. But Epstein remains the source of controversy and heated political debate over public disclosure of documents about his alleged crimes against girls as young as 14 years old, as well as his personal ties to influential elites, including President Donald Trump.
Wyden, serving as Senate Finance Committee chairman when Democratic President Joe Biden was in office, spearheaded a financial investigation into Epstein for more than three years. Now with Trump’s Republican administration in power, Crapo assumed the committee’s chairmanship and sets its agenda.
Last year, Trump committed during his presidential campaign to release more of the documents related to his former friend Epstein, if he was elected. However, the Trump administration has since backtracked. Trump last month from the Oval Office called bipartisan efforts to release the so-called Epstein files a “Democrat hoax that never ends” and “totally irrelevant.”
A recent national survey from NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll found that 77% of adults who participated — including 67% of those who identified as Republicans — want all of the Epstein files released. Of the survey group, 61% disapproved of how the Trump administration has handled the issue. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.1% points.
“The president had run with a promise to expose the Epstein files,” Wyden said on the Senate floor. “Now he and the attorney general, Pam Bondi, say, ‘Nope, nothing to investigate. When it comes to Epstein and sex trafficking, all these claims are just ludicrous.’ I want the American people to know that that’s wrong.”
This article was originally published by Idaho Statesman. To read more, click here.