Every level of government failed to prevent Jeffrey Epstein from sex trafficking minors for over a decade, according to a report released Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee, the most recent effort by elected officials to further an investigation into his sex crimes.

Those failures began in South Florida with the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Committee concluded, where Epstein was given an extremely lenient plea deal that allowed him to continue his abuse.

“The crimes committed by Epstein after 2005 could have been prevented and justice served had it not been for the repeated failures of law enforcement and federal prosecutors,” the Committee wrote in its 136-page report.

Republicans and Democrats continue to call for further investigation of Epstein’s crimes and possible co-conspirators, in reports and public speeches, after scrutiny into the case sparked public outrage last year. The Committee conducted 19 transcribed interviews or depositions with key witnesses, and referred at least two men accused of abuse to the Department of Justice, including former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine.

The report was the result of a 15-month investigation led by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the committee.

“The evidence we uncovered makes clear that the Department of Justice must interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity, and ensure survivors have access to their records,” said Comer, in a statement.

While the report does not conclude that anyone mentioned in it committed a crime, it criticizes former Miami federal prosecutors responsible for Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, details sexual abuse accusations against Levine and others, and highlights ties Epstein had to powerful men like billionaire businessman Les Wexner and banker Jes Staley.

It also issues recommendations, including calling for further interviews of witnesses and passage of legislation aimed at allowing survivors to speak regardless of prior non-disclosure and other confidentiality agreements. It notes that some witnesses already interviewed by the committee were not found to be credible.

In 2008, the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office, under then U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, gave Epstein a plea deal that allowed him to escape federal sex trafficking charges and gave immunity to an unknown number of his co-conspirators. Epstein continued his abuse, according to testimony and documents, until his re-arrest in 2019 following a Miami Herald investigation that showed how federal prosecutors in South Florida spearheaded the lenient deal. Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan prison cell in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Over 3.5 million pages of Department of Justice files related to Epstein were released in January, following a year of public debate and increasing pressure from the survivors over the case.

President Donald Trump campaigned on releasing the DOJ files related to Epstein, but in July 2025, after stating that a list of Epstein’s clients was “on her desk,” former attorney general Pam Bondi announced that a review of the files revealed no credible evidence that others were involved in his crimes. Following pressure from Congress and the public, Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act to release the files in November 2025.

In late October of this year, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee published a report describing allegations by five women – made in statements to the FBI or to the committee – that Trump raped or sexually assaulted them while in the company of Epstein. Trump, who was friends with Epstein from the 1980s to at least the early 2000s, has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes. A White House spokeswoman called the report politically motivated.

The latest Committee report on Tuesday criticized Democrats for investigating Trump’s ties with Epstein – calling their efforts an “unfounded witch hunt.”

Just hours after the report was published, California Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat expected to take over the House Select Committee in January, said its findings were “incomplete.”

“The Department of Justice continues to illegally withhold over 2.5 million pages of documents, there’s been no investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer, and Attorney General Todd Blanche has yet to testify about his role in the largest government cover-up of the modern era,” he wrote in a statement. “We will not allow the President and his allies to dismiss this investigation.”

After Democrats took control of the House and Senate in sweeping victories in the midterm elections last week, House representatives vowed to continue to investigate how the now-deceased sex trafficker abused what the Department of Justice estimates to be over 1,000 victims.

The DOJ disputed the report’s findings: “With all due respect, the Chairman’s recommendations have already been addressed,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement. “The Attorney General has repeatedly said that the Epstein case is not closed and there is no statute of limitations on human trafficking.”

The 2008 plea deal

The Committee criticized the former top prosecutor of the case at the time of the 2008 deal, Acosta, stating that his “hands-off approach” to the investigation allowed “potential Epstein loyalists” to run the deal. Acosta had been Trump’s labor secretary during his first term; he resigned in 2019 after the publication of the Herald’s series on the plea deal and Epstein’s abuse.

“Mr. Acosta has said that knowing what we know today, the 2006 prosecution would have been handled differently,” said Jeffrey A. Neiman, the lawyer for Acosta, in an emailed statement to the Herald. “Mr. Acosta has also taken responsibility for approving the final resolution, admitting that relying on the state system was a mistake.”

The report states that evidence suggests Matthew Menchel, the Miami U.S. Attorney’s office chief criminal prosecutor at the time, “had a connection to Epstein while he was at the USAO” and cited an interview with Acosta, but did not present any new evidence.

In the transcript of his testimony, Acosta does not state Menchel had a connection with Epstein at the time, but was asked about Menchel previously dating a woman on Epstein’s defense team and a photo that purported to show the men skiing together. That photo has not surfaced, Menchel denied it happened and Acosta testified to the committee that he was not aware that Menchel had previously gone on dates with someone on Epstein’s defense team until informed by the Office of Professional Responsibility.

A Herald review of documents found that Epstein and Menchel met in the years following the plea deal for dinners and meetings in 2011, 2013 and 2017.

Another attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the time, Bruce Reinhart, later represented several Epstein associates when he turned to private practice, according to testimony from one of Epstein’s former assistants. He is now a U.S. magistrate judge in the Southern District of Florida.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Reinhart denied any misconduct, and cited a 2011 sworn affidavit where he said he was not part of the team involved in Epstein’s investigation.

Erica Wolff, an attorney for Menchel, denied that he had any connection to Epstein during his time at the attorney’s office.

“This Report, as it pertains to Mr. Menchel is full of lies— utterly unsubstantiated and demonstrably false accusations that do a deep disservice to the victims, to everyone involved in the investigation, and to the American people,” Wolff said Tuesday.

Accusations against former Miami Beach mayor

One former assistant of Epstein, Sarah Kellen, testified before the Committee she was abused by men connected to Epstein, including the former Miami Beach mayor Levine, who she said “forced himself” on her in Saint Tropez, while staying there with Epstein and Maxwell. Kellen was in her early-to-mid 20s at the time, and Levine was around 40.

In the report, representatives cited emails in which Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell talk about Disney princesses, and described them as code names for women, including an email between Maxwell and Levine referencing the “beauty and the beast.” While the report describes Levine reaching out to Maxwell and receiving an attachment, the original email shows that Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for child sex trafficking, emailed an attachment first, and Levine responded.

A spokesperson for Levine said he “categorically denies Ms. Kellen’s allegation” and called the claims of code names “absurd and false.”

“He had a consensual relationship between two adults more than 25 years ago,” said Chris Vlasto.

Transcripts of interviews and depositions completed by the Committee are public online. Those include testimony from former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Epstein’s former lawyer and accountant, and two of his former assistants.

“Our mission was clear: bring transparency to the American people and accountability for survivors,” Comer said in a video published on social media following the report’s publication on Tuesday.

After the report’s publication, the family of Virginia Giuffre, a prominent survivor of Epstein’s abuse and one of the first to come forward, released a statement thanking Comer. Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025.

In the statement, Sky and Amanda Roberts, Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, emphasized the ongoing questions over which files have yet to be released, and urged that all documents be made public.

“We know that the names of many perpetrators have not yet been brought to light, including those our sister Virginia Roberts Giuffre was trafficked to, people she reported to the FBI,” they wrote. “She is not alone; other survivors have submitted the names of their abusers as well, but nothing has been done.”

—Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown contributed to this report.

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