Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is demanding a probe into whether the Trump administration killed a drug trafficking investigation into the late financier and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
According to CBS News, Wyden's letter to the director of the Drug Enforcement Administration cites a memo recently uncovered as part of the Epstein Files Transparency act. "The memo, from 2015, refers to a DEA Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces probe nicknamed 'Chain Reaction.' It noted that the case was opened in 2010 in New York and was 'judicial pending,' indicating that the investigation remained active at the time the memo was drafted 5 years later."
Per that memo, the co-conspirators were under investigation for "illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City."
The fact that no prosecution was ever undertaken is cause for suspicion, Wyden wrote in his letter. He wants an investigation into whether "DEA and DOJ during the first Trump Administration moved to terminate this investigation in order to protect pedophiles."
Epstein, who associated with the rich and famous for decades while trafficking young girls to abuse, was ultimately arrested in 2019 after initially getting off with a sweetheart deal a decade before; he was infamously found dead of apparent suicide in his cell before he could be brought to trial, which has spawned an endless wave of speculation and conspiracy theories about just how deep his child trafficking operation went.
The Trump administration has faced bipartisan anger over the slow-walk and selective release of files related to the investigation, including missing files about a woman who claimed Epstein and Trump both abused her as a child during the 1980s.
