‘Comer Is 100% a Part of the Cover-Up’: House Democrat Accuses Oversight Chair of Running Epstein Interference

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) accused House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) of running cover for the Trump administration on the Epstein files debacle.

Last year, Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to release all of its files on Jeffrey Epstein, who authorities say committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ released some of the files in piecemeal fashion after the law’s December 19 deadline.

Bondi’s handling of the files came under heavy scrutiny. They were supposed to be released unredacted, except for survivors’ names. However, other parts were redacted, prompting a group of bipartisan senators to call for a probe of the DOJ. In February 2025, Bondi said on live television that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now.” The DOJ later walked back that claim, stating that there was no such list. In May 2025, it was reported that Bondi had told President Donald Trump that his name was in the files. Trump was friends with Epstein, but denies wrongdoing and knowledge of Epstein’s illegal activities.

On Friday, Bondi, whom Trump fired in April, met with the Oversight Committee to discuss the Epstein investigation. In her opening statement, Bondi said she “delegated” the release of the files to then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is now acting AG. After the meeting, Bondi disputed media reports stating she had blamed Blanche.

Hours later on CNN’s The Source, Kaitlan Collins asked Frost, who sits on the Oversight Committee, about the meeting. Frost relayed that Bondi repeatedly refused to answer questions about Trump. Collins then pivoted to Ghislaine Maxwell, the former Epstein associate who is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison for child sex trafficking.

“On Ghislaine Maxwell, did she say anything about whether or not Ghislaine Maxwell, she believes, will get a pardon or, or anything like that?” Collins inquired. Last year, the DOJ transferred Maxwell to a lower-security prison after Blanche interviewed her about Epstein and Trump.

“We asked her if she thought [Maxwell] should get a pardon,” Frost replied. “She said, ‘No.’ We said, ‘Ok, we agree with that.’ We asked her about any discussions she had with anyone in the administration or the president about the transfer, about what’s going to happen with Ghislaine Maxwell, and she would refuse to answer the question. So, on some of the most important questions we had about intent, about what she was told to do, and more importantly, what she was told not to do, she just flat out refused to answer those questions.”

Frost pivoted to Comer and slammed his handling of the proceedings:

And I have to point out that the reason why she could do this, essentially, is because James Comer, the chair of the committee, allowed this to be a transcribed interview that was not videoed. And so people have to know that, you know, you got to see a video of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, the depositions we had with them.

But for this interview with the person who was the attorney general of the United States of America during this complete botched release of Epstein files, was not put on video, was transcribed, and it’s a transcription that’s going to go to the Department of Justice so they can review it before it’s made public.

And so I just have to say that the chair of the committee is now part of the cover-up. And something they’ve been doing, Kaitlan, is they know that now we want to subpoena Todd Blanche because Pam Bondi essentially told us to subpoena him, to talk with him about more stuff. But what they’re doing is they are refusing to hold any hearings in the Oversight Committee, because they know that we have enough Republicans who would join us on making us issuing a subpoena to Todd Blanche.

So we haven’t had a hearing in, I believe, two months now. All they’re doing when we meet as a committee is what they call roundtables, which are off the record, and where you can’t make a motion to make a subpoena. So, Chair Comer is 100% a part of the cover-up now.

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!