House Republicans kick off Epstein probe with Bill Barr deposition

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Monday began their probe into the late financier and convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein by deposing former Attorney General Bill Barr.

The probe comes after the Trump administration faced heavy backlash over its handling of the Epstein investigation, including its promise to release the Justice Department's files on Epstein. While there has been confusion about and calls for the release of Epstein's alleged client list, the Justice Department has since said it does not exist. 

Barr is one of 10 high-profile former federal officials that the Oversight panel subpoenaed as part of its investigation. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are also expected to sit for depositions.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters after the deposition that Barr testified he had no information that would implicate President Donald Trump, who was previously friends with Epstein before the pair had a falling out years ago.

“What Attorney General Barr testified in there was that he never had conversations with President Trump pertaining to a client list,” Comer said. “He didn’t know anything about a client list. He said that he had never seen anything that would implicate President Trump in any of this, and that he believed if there had been anything pertaining to President Trump with respect to the Epstein list, that he felt like the Biden administration would have probably leaked it out.”

House Democrats on the Oversight panel claimed they appeared to be taking the investigation more seriously than their Republican counterparts, stating they were doing the heavy lifting in the probe, according to The Hill.

“I think the Democratic side is doing most of the heavy lifting. I don’t think we’re learning much from the questioning from the House Republicans," Democratic Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam said. "It doesn’t seem like this is something where they are truly caring about the victims and about trying to get to the bottom of what’s happening."

Comer responded to the criticism by claiming Democrats were trying to "politicize" the investigation in order to find dirt on the president. 

Barr's deposition comes because he was the attorney general during Trump's first term, when Epstein was arrested in 2019. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.