Footage of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-a-Lago in the 1990s

On Wednesday morning, December 3, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released some images and videos pertaining to the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation of the late billionaire financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

MS NOW legal expert Lisa Rubin offered some takeaways from the images' release, and she argued that President Donald Trump and his allies — including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi — might use a new Epstein-related probe by DOJ's Southern District of New York (SDNY) as a "pretext" for not releasing the Epstein files.

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act of 2025 — which was passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump — the Epstein files must be released by December 19. But a new SDNY probe, according to Rubin, could delay that.

Rubin told host Ana Cabrera, "That is a big mystery right now — has the Southern District of New York, in fact, opened that new investigation? And will the Department of Justice use it as a pretext to conceal or withhold or redact information that is otherwise called for by the Epstein Files Transparency Act and, as you noted, is otherwise due on December 19?"

The newly released images and videos, Rubin noted, show what has been called "Epstein Island" — and they are images that correspond to the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffrey's description of where she said acts of sexual abuse occurred.

"A couple of things stand out to me," Rubin told Cabera. "So, we've seen images of Jeffrey Epstein's Virgin Islands — and there were two islands, actually — before. But we've largely seen them through drone and through satellite from above, or at least from further distances away. And this is really one of the first times we've had an opportunity to see up close some of the structures where some of the alleged abuse is said to have taken place."

Rubin continued, "But, Ana, one of the other things that stands out to me is one of the photographs released by House Oversight Democrats this morning is a phone that has several numbers — or several people, and their cell or home — listed there. Among the people listed in that image — and I see that we're showing it right now — are Richard and Darren. That is, Richard Kahn and Darren Indyke, the accountant and lawyer, respectively, who are now the two co-executors of Jeffrey Epstein's estate. They are also driving the bus with respect to the production, by the estate, to the House Oversight Committee. And yet, there are constant insinuations that both Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn, who have never been accused of criminal wrongdoing, were deeply complicit in what Jeffrey Epstein did, because they must have known, given their proximity to him."

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