Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Justice Department's release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York wrote in a seven-page opinion that while he supervises the case against Epstein's friend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, he doesn't have "any charter to supervise" whether the Department of Justice is meeting its legal obligation.
He said his order doesn't prevent the lawmakers from suing over the matter, and added that the lawmakers and victims "raise legitimate concerns about whether DOJ is faithfully complying with federal law."
Massie and Khanna wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which became law late last year. The Department of Justice was required to release all the files by Dec. 19. The department has acknowledged that millions of documents are being reviewed.
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