Former Vice President Kamala Harris offered a firm defense Wednesday regarding the Biden administration’s approach to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, insisting that a commitment to Department of Justice independence prevented them from intervening in the release of sensitive documents.
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Harris addressed the long-standing questions surrounding the files just days before a congressionally mandated deadline forces their public release. Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on Nov. 19, the current Justice Department must release all unclassified records related to the disgraced financier by this Friday.
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Harris acknowledged that the former administration’s hands-off policy might have been politically costly but maintained it was ethically necessary.
“To give you an answer that will not satisfy your curiosity, I will tell you we, perhaps to our damage, but we strongly and rightly believed that there should be an absolute separation between what we wanted as an administration and what the Department of Justice did,” Harris told Kimmel.
“We absolutely adhered to that and it was right to do that,” she continued. “The Justice Department would make its decisions independent of any political or personal vendetta or concern that we may have and that’s the way it worked.”
The renewed focus on the documents comes after a volatile summer regarding the investigation. In July, the DOJ and FBI concluded a probe with a memo stating Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell and possessed no definitive “client list.” That conclusion drew sharp scrutiny, particularly because it appeared to contradict earlier statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had previously claimed to have a client list on her desk awaiting review.
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The political narrative surrounding the files has shifted repeatedly. President Trump initially dismissed calls for the release as a “Democratic hoax” before pivoting to support transparency, asserting that Republicans had nothing to hide.
The files also touch on the President directly. According to reports, Epstein’s former associate Ghislaine Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that she never witnessed Trump engage in inappropriate behavior during the time he and Epstein were friends.
As the Friday deadline approaches, Washington is bracing for what—if anything—the new tranche of documents might reveal about Epstein’s network.
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