‘Government Failed the Victims’: James Comer Unveils Plan to Close Epstein-Era Human Trafficking Loopholes

The House will likely consider a large anti-human trafficking bill following a wide-ranging investigation of government failures regarding wealthy convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The legislation will focus on defining human trafficking to prevent offenders from using loopholes and to ensure that someone who signed a nondisclosure agreement will still be required to report sexual misconduct, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.

Comer spoke in an exclusive interview with the Daily Signal.

Comer led the probe into the government’s handling of Epstein’s case by the committee, which held interviews and depositions with dozens of people, many of them high-profile individuals, and gathered about 3 million documents.

“We also hope to have legislation that deals with human trafficking and to prevent some of the things that we think were allowed to happen, that the law is unclear on with some of these girls,” Comer told the Daily Signal. “It’s going to deal with human trafficking laws. It’s going to define grooming.”

He added, “It will also deal with non-disclosure agreements to where and if people knew about sexual misconduct, that they’re required to report it, even if there was a nondisclosure agreement.”

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The committee held depositions behind closed doors and later released transcripts and videos with major figures who were close to Epstein when he was alive. This included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Comer noted that Hillary Clinton agreed with some of his policy suggestions to prevent similar situations.

“When I talked to Hillary Clinton, when she was doing her deposition with us, we told her we would like to do some legislation on human trafficking,” Comer said. “She thought that was good because some of the women, after having told their stories, probably wouldn’t have met the legal definition of being human trafficked, even though it seems they were. So we want to try to make sure there’s no loophole in the law that would allow another person like Jeffrey Epstein to be able to lure women from other countries to his island to be abused.”

The congressional investigation will wrap up at the end of the congressional session, with a final report or summary of the findings, Comer said.

“The government failed, and that’s what, when we wrap all this up, that’s going to be the conclusion: The government failed the victims,” Comer said.

Comer said the committee will likely make a referral to the Justice Department at the conclusion of the investigation, but he was not ready to name anyone. He noted that there are still a few people the committee wants to depose.

He added that he does not believe some of the testimony, but does not have the evidence to suggest it is false.

The Justice Department initially charged Epstein in 2008 with operating a sex trafficking ring, luring dozens of underage girls to his mansions in Palm Beach, Manhattan, and elsewhere. In 2008, Epstein avoided federal prosecution by entering into a non-prosecution agreement in Florida, pleading guilty to state-level charges of soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution. He served 13 months in jail.

More than a decade later, federal prosecutors in New York arrested Epstein in July 2019 on new federal sex trafficking and conspiracy indictments. But before his trial could take place, Epstein died by what is believed to be suicide in his Manhattan prison cell in August 2019.

Comer said it’s still difficult to say why the failures happened.

“Every failure that seemed like it could happen, happened. Now, did it happen because he was influential?” Comer asked. “Did it happen because he was an asset of some government agency of ours or another? I don’t know. Or did it happen because of incompetence by the government? I think any of those three are possible answers to why it happened.”

Comer said this was the most thorough investigation of Epstein’s inner circle, and it unfortunately came decades after his crimes.

“No one ever interviewed the key players around Epstein,” Comer had said prior to the committee’s investigation. “No one interviewed his staff. No one interviewed his legal team and accountant, and no one interviewed any of the men that the victims identified as being abusers.”

He noted the vast failures to stop Epstein were somewhat similar to the government’s failures ahead of 9/11, when government agencies had information that could have stopped the attack, but none were communicating.

“You had several different states that were investigating Epstein, as well as the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York. I don’t think any of those entities were communicating with each other, as you can tell now from all the evidence, and I’ve subpoenaed all the evidence,” Comer said.

“New Mexico didn’t know what was happening in the Virgin Islands and the Virgin Islands didn’t know what was happening in Florida and the Department of Justice in New York didn’t know what was happening in those other three states, as well as Palm Beach didn’t know what was going on in New York City,” Comer said.

“This was this guy that was committing crimes in at least four different locations, at least New York City, the Virgin Islands, Florida, and New Mexico, and there probably were more,” Comer said.