Maine’s representatives in Congress expressed support for a subcommittee’s decision Wednesday to subpoena the U.S. Department of Justice for files from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation.
The House Oversight subcommittee dealing with federal law enforcement voted 8-2 to seek the files regarding Epstein, the financier who died by suicide in 2019 in prison while awaiting trial in a sex trafficking case. Next steps are unclear, but the vote was the latest twist in the Epstein saga that has pitted President Donald Trump against some of his own supporters.
Maine’s two Democratic representatives said Thursday they approve of the move, while U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, have not responded to requests for comment.
Three Republicans on the subcommittee — Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Brian Jack of Georgia — voted with Democrats to approve Wednesday afternoon the subpoena motion from Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pennsylvania. Reps. Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Andy Biggs of Arizona opposed it.
That vote came hours before members began their August recess early after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, sought to avoid additional votes on other legislation to release Epstein-related files.
Trump, who admitted to once being close friends with Epstein, was told by Attorney General Pam Bondi in May that his name appears alongside those of other prominent people in Justice Department documents about the Epstein case, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday while noting the mere inclusion of his name does not imply wrongdoing.
The Justice Department and FBI, whose two leaders previously promoted conspiracy theories about Epstein, said earlier this month they have no evidence Epstein kept a “client list,” blackmailed well-known people or was murdered in prison. Those conclusions did not please all of Trump’s supporters, who have accused the administration of covering up Epstein records and called for Bondi’s firing. Maine Republicans have stayed mostly quiet on the topic.
Collins and King had not responded to a question about how they viewed the subpoena vote by late Thursday afternoon. Collins spokesperson Blake Kernen only said the Senate “has nothing to do with the House’s subpoena, but we will keep you apprised of any similar efforts over here.”
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, the 1st District Democrat, said it was “becoming increasingly clear that Republicans — including AG Bondi and other high-ranking DOJ officials — are more interested in protecting the president than letting the truth come out.”
“The American people deserve to know the truth: about who’s in these files, what they did, what they knew and when and about how some of the world’s most powerful people could escape accountability for so long,” Pingree said.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, the 2nd District Democrat, called the House subcommittee vote “a good step toward bringing much-needed sunlight.”
“The administration created quite a bit of confusion, with an ever-changing story about what documents exist and what they contain,” Golden said.
The House subcommittee also approved Wednesday a motion from Perry to issue subpoenas to former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along with former FBI directors and attorneys general who served under Republican and Democratic presidents.
Those subpoenas relate to the investigation into Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse girls. Maxwell was also subpoenaed Wednesday, with a deposition scheduled for Aug. 11.