A federal judge has shut down an effort by two anti-Trump House lawmakers to force the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to immediately release all remaining files related to Jeffrey Epstein, ruling that the court lacks jurisdiction to intervene.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a seven-page decision rejecting a request from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to participate in the closed criminal case of Ghislaine Maxwell as amici curiae, or “friends of the court.”
Khanna and Massie had asked Engelmayer to appoint a special master to oversee the DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), a law they authored and that was signed by President Donald Trump last year.