Democratic Rep. Garcia Slams White House Over DOJ Claim About Finding One Million New Epstein Files: 'Engaged In a Cover-Up'

Rep. Robert Garcia, the Democratic House Oversight Ranking Member, slammed the Department of Justice and the White House after the former's claim that it had found a million additional Epstein files.

"The White House is openly engaged in a cover-up protecting Epstein's co-conspirators and the powerful men who abused women and girls. It's outrageous that the DOJ has illegally withheld over 1 million documents from the public," Garcia said in a statement.

"Every day we see lies, incompetence, missed deadlines, and illegal redactions. Pam Bondi needs to testify to Congress under oath to explain herself. Oversight Democrats also want to hear from whistleblowers or anyone at the DOJ who can assist us in bringing justice for the survivors. You are protected by the law," he added.

The statement came after the DOJ claimed that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI informed of their finding.

"The DOJ has received these documents from SDNY and the FBI to review them for release, in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, existing statutes, and judicial orders," the department said, warning that "due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks."

The DOJ is scrambling to deal with the release of the files, also having a hard time finding people to volunteer to redact them.

CNN detailed that DOJ leadership asked career prosecutors in Florida to volunteer to help over the "next several days" to help with the effort.

"We need AUSAs to do remote document review and redactions related to the Epstein files," reads a part of the message sent by DOJ officials.

The outlet noted that the email means there is a chance that more files will be released over the next days, including during Christmas and the New Year's holidays.

Before the latest claim, Axios had reported that administration officials estimated they had about a week left before releasing all the files, with some 700,000 to go. Now that figure has become significantly higher.