US federal authorities could have prevented Epstein crimes, report finds

Crimes committed by the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after 2005 could have been prevented were it not for "failures" by federal investigators and prosecutors, a congressional investigation has concluded.

The Republican-led US House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released its final report into what it described as the "decades-long" mishandling of the criminal investigations into Epstein and his long-term associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The report's findings are based on interviews and depositions with witnesses, government files, and financial records over a 15-month period.

Epstein died in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

"While some of these failures involved an exercise in poor judgement by the USAO, others appeared to be the result of Epstein's pervasive and wide-reaching influence," the report reads, referring to the US Attorney's Office.

It states that, rather than fully investigating allegations in other states, the USAO for the Southern District of Florida entered an agreement with Epstein in 2007 allowing him to evade federal prosecution.

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Regarding Epstein's death in a New York prison, investigators concluded this was a result of "a series of institutional failures at the facility," which included staffing shortages, overworked employees, poor recordkeeping, and lax security practices.

Testimony the panel solicited was "unable to definitively dispel certain theories" surrounding Epstein's death, the report states, including accounting for a lapse in surveillance footage.

It found the justice department (DoJ) failed to communicate about document releases and that deficient redactions exposed survivors' sensitive personal information.

Earlier this year, the DoJ had to remove thousands of documents related to Epstein from its website after victims said their identities had been compromised.

The report also alleges that financial institutions like American Express enabled human trafficking and immigration fraud, by allowing Epstein to use decoy flights and dummy itineraries to transport foreign workers across borders. The BBC has contacted American Express for comment.

The investigative panel recommended that Congress should pass legislation to prevent the weaponisation of non-disclosure agreements, which they said Epstein used to silence survivors.

"Epstein operated with impunity, shielded and enabled by powerful connections and a justice system that repeatedly failed his victims," said James Comer, the Republican chairman of the committee.

He called upon the DoJ to "interview or re-interview key witnesses, investigate Epstein associates accused of criminal activity, and ensure survivors have access to their records.

The report accuses Democrats of being "obsessed" with trying to implicate US President Donald Trump and that an "unfounded witch hunt continued without regard for the interests of survivors".

Trump has previously said he was friendly with Epstein before they fell out in 2004. The president's name has appeared thousands of times in the Epstein files but there is no suggestion that appearing in the documents implies any wrongdoing.

The committee's review of documents did not identify any that would implicate Trump, the report concluded.

In a statement, Rep Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, alleged his Republican colleagues "released a report based on an incomplete investigation and zero public hearings on Jeffrey Epstein".

Garcia accused the justice department of withholding "over 2.5 million pages of documents".

"We will not allow the President and his allies to dismiss this investigation," said Garcia, who is expected to lead the committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January following the recent midterm elections.

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