An advocacy group sued the US justice department and the FBI on Friday for records detailing their handling of the sex trafficking investigation into the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
The legal organization Democracy Forward is seeking records related to senior administration officials’ communication about Epstein documents and any regarding correspondence between Epstein and Donald Trump.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington DC appears to the be first of its kind. The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.
“The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,” said Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of the Democratic-aligned group, in a statement. The federal government often shields records related to criminal investigations from public view.
The justice department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Democracy Forward has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump’s Republican administration, challenging a wide range of its policies and the president’s executive orders.
The case has been subject to heightened public focus since the justice department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case.
Meanwhile, top Trump officials reportedly met at the White House on Wednesday night to discuss strategy moving forward as the Trump administration continues to face criticism, including from Republicans, for its handling of the official files related to Epstein and the US president’s responses to calls for the release of all documents related to the criminal investigation.
The meeting was reportedly hosted by JD Vance, with the gathering moved from the vice-president’s official residence to the White House, according to reporting by CNN. The meeting had been billed to include top Trump officials, including the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI director, Kash Patel. Vance and his staff had denied that a meeting to discuss the handling of the rumbling Epstein scandal was taking place.
The Trump administration is now weighing whether to release recorded audio from the recent Department of Justice interview with Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
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The meeting’s main focus was expected to be the administration’s handling of the Epstein case and the need for a unified response, CNN reported, also saying that Trump officials were weighing whether the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, should hold a press conference about his two in-person interviews with Maxwell in Florida earlier this month, before she was moved to a lower-security prison camp in Texas.
Maxwell has recently opposed the release of grand jury testimony from her case, which prosecutors have sought after the justice department faced criticism after stating it had no further Epstein files even as the attorney general, Pam Bondi, had promoted the documents the department had. Maxwell is serving 20 years for sex-trafficking offenses after years as Epstein’s sidekick and has appealed to the US supreme court to overturn her case. She was convicted in New York after going to trial, while Epstein died in custody in New York while awaiting trial.
The Department of Justice was given until noon on Friday to address privacy concerns from victims and Maxwell about the release of the testimony.
The House oversight committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice on Tuesday for files in the case after Republicans in the House blocked efforts by Democrats to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.
Victims of Epstein and Maxwell have written letters to federal judges criticizing the Department of Justice’s approach to the case and it meetings with Maxwell. They largely have supported releasing the grand jury testimony as long as they were allowed to review the information and have sensitive information redacted.
The Associated Press contributed reporting