- Oversight Chair James Comer doubts the Epstein report will be believed, likening it to the controversial Warren Report.
- Comer plans to depose Bill and Hillary Clinton as investigation seeks names from victims and subpoenaed bank records.
- Critics say the probe risks political deflection and may fail to deliver accountability despite impending public release of files.
WASHINGTON—Just as the clock ticks down to a mandated public release of Jeffrey Epstein’s explosive files, the Republican leading Congress’s investigation into the late sex trafficker’s web of elite connections is throwing cold water on the whole effort.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told Politico in an interview this week that he’s bracing for a backlash of conspiracy theories that could torpedo the probe’s findings—before they’ve even been written.
“I fear the report will be like the Warren Report,” Comer said, invoking the controversial 1964 investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, long dogged by public skepticism.
The FrankNez Media Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
“Nobody will ever believe it,” he continued. “There’s so many conspiracy theories.”
Those worries, Comer admitted, were a big part of why “I wasn’t excited about doing the investigation” in the first place.
As for whether a final report will ever see the light of day? He’s noncommittal at best:
“Eventually, I would assume.”
It’s a stunning admission from the man who’s helmed the GOP-led inquiry since Republicans took the House majority, overseeing the unearthing of more than 20,000 pages of Epstein estate documents and even the release of a guest list from the financier’s infamous 50th birthday bash.
Those files paint a damning picture of Epstein’s orbit, which included presidents, princes, and power brokers from both sides of the aisle.
Comer Thinks Jeffrey Epstein Files Will Hit Democrats Harder
But with the Trump administration now legally bound to disgorge the full trove of Epstein materials by mid-December—thanks to a bill the president himself signed earlier this month to “move on” from the saga—Comer’s doubts are landing at a particularly awkward moment.
The probe was supposed to be a Republican showcase: a chance to expose Democratic ties to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell while shielding their own party’s links.
Comer, a staunch Trump ally, has been front and center in downplaying any fallout for the president-elect, despite well-documented evidence of their friendship spanning the 1990s and 2000s.
Trump and Epstein palled around at Mar-a-Lago parties and social events for over a decade, with Trump once calling Epstein a “terrific guy” in a 2002 interview.
But Comer has pushed back hard on suggestions that the investigation is boomeranging on the incoming administration.
A senior White House official told Politico that Trump “likes James Comer a lot,” adding that the president-elect has praised him as someone who’s “always been good and with him all the way. There’s no problems there.”
Comer to Depose Bill and Hillary Clinton
To keep the spotlight off those connections, Comer made waves last Friday by announcing plans to depose former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next month.
The Clintons’ Epstein links—Bill’s multiple flights on the Lolita Express, Hillary’s tangential mentions in court docs—have long fueled right-wing firestorms.
But critics see it as classic deflection, especially since House Republicans initially stonewalled a bipartisan push for the files’ full release.
The GOP cited the ongoing probe as proof they were already “taking the case seriously,” only to fold after Trump intervened, signing the bill to shift focus back to his policy wins.
Now, with less than a month until the files hit the public domain, Comer’s casting about for an endgame.
“I’m not quite sure” what it looks like, he confessed to Politico.
He’s pinning some hopes on bank records he’s subpoenaed, betting they’ll uncover fresh dirt on Epstein’s enablers.
But the real heavy lifting, Comer suggested, falls to the victims themselves. He’s directed female members of his committee to huddle with Epstein survivors, pressing them for names of the “rich and powerful” who allegedly partook in the abuse.
That approach drew swift backlash from Jennifer Freeman, an attorney representing some of the women.
“Why are we putting the burden on them?” she shot back.
Comer’s reply? A blunt acknowledgment of the probe’s potential dead end: “If there is no Epstein list, and the American people expect us to compose an Epstein list, if we don’t get any names from the victims, it’s going to be hard to do.”
So, What Comes Next?
This isn’t Comer’s first high-profile swing and miss.
As Oversight chair, he spearheaded aggressive probes into then-President Joe Biden’s family business dealings and questions about the elder statesman’s mental acuity—investigations that racked up headlines but yielded little in the way of concrete evidence or accountability.
Those efforts, like the Epstein saga, often seemed more geared toward cable news soundbites than courtroom breakthroughs.
For victims’ advocates and transparency watchdogs, Comer’s pessimism feels like a gut punch.
After years of foot-dragging by federal agencies, the impending file dump—forced by congressional action—promised a reckoning.
Epstein’s 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell, ruled a suicide but endlessly dissected by theorists, only amplified demands for sunlight on his network.
Maxwell’s 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges cracked the door open, but the full roster of clients and co-conspirators remains maddeningly elusive.
Comer’s Warren Commission parallel underscores a deeper frustration: In an era of deepfakes, QAnon echoes, and polarized media silos, can any official report pierce the noise?
Or will the Epstein files, like so many scandals before them, dissolve into another rabbit hole of speculation?
As the December deadline looms, one thing’s clear—the man tasked with delivering answers isn’t betting on belief.
Also Read: A DOJ Whistleblower Now Makes Revelation That Undermines the Judicial System’s Integrity
