The Office of the Inspector General announced recently that it will be initiating an audit of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a systematic review that one legal expert and former state attorney said could be used against the Trump administration should Democrats take back control of the House in November.
“I know you're probably thinking: 'the inspector general is going to investigate the DOJ, that's not going anywhere, it'll be a cover up,’” said Dave Aronberg, legal expert and former state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, speaking Tuesday on his legal analysis show “Legal AF."
Last year, President Donald Trump signed into law the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), which mandated that the DOJ release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein in its possession, and with limited redactions. Trump initially opposed the bill and sought to quash it before later agreeing to sign it amid its growing bi-partisan support among lawmakers.
However, with the EFTA being signed more than five months ago as of Wednesday, millions of Epstein-related files within the DOJ’s possession still remain unreleased, which critics say is a blatant violation of the law.
As such, while critics may dismiss an audit into the DOJ’s handling of Epstein-related files by the very same DOJ doing the withholding, the findings of such an audit may prove useful to Democratic lawmakers as soon as next year, assuming Democrats retake the House majority, Aronberg said.
“The good news is an election is coming in November, and after the midterms, the Democrats will control the House, and there will be hearings and investigations,” he said.
“So if the IG does include [in its audit report] that the Department of Justice willfully violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act, then it could provide a new Democratic Congress with the impetus to issue subpoenas and really go after some of the officials. Maybe you heard it here first – you can actually think that perhaps, in 24 months when this comes out and there's a Democratic Congress – that they can take something in here and really get tough.”