- Key insight: Sen. Ron Wyden is demanding the immediate release of all FBI interviews with employees at JPMorganChase, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.
- What's at stake: Wyden claims the three big banks enabled Epstein's operations by ignoring anti-money-laundering laws across $1.4 billion in suspicious transactions.
- Supporting data: Wyden says his staffers discovered that an interview with at least one top banker was not publicly disclosed, in violation of the law.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden is demanding that the Department of Justice release the summary of an interview with a high-profile banker connected to Jeffrey Epstein, claiming the agency purposely withheld records it's legally required to make public.
Wyden, D-Ore., said in
"Investigators from my staff recently learned that the FBI possesses an FBI 302 report memorializing an interview with a banker tied to Epstein that was conducted as part of a criminal investigation into Epstein and his associates," the letter states. "This FBI 302 report is not included in the documents DOJ has released."
Wyden said he is now demanding the DOJ produce all so-called 302 reports connected to three banks:
Because the FBI interview with the unnamed banker was kept under wraps, additional records also may be hidden, Wyden said. A 302 form is a written record of an FBI interview with a witness, subject or informant.
"The existence of this FBI 302, and its exclusion from the publicly released EFTA files, has heightened my concerns that the DOJ and the FBI are withholding key documents from Congress and the public," Wyden wrote in the letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel. "Furthermore, the existence of this 302 indicates that it is likely that the FBI possesses additional, related, FBI 302s that have not been released pursuant the EFTA."
Last month,
Wyden's report listed 13 senior bankers at the three banks who allegedly protected Epstein in order to gain access to Leon Black, the former CEO of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, and other wealthy people.
Black was Epstein's largest source of funding, and Wyden's investigation found that Epstein relied heavily on large payments from Black to bankroll his sex-trafficking activity. Last month, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to hold Black in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas.
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Wyden's recent report described suspicious activity reported by Deutsche Bank after Epstein's death in 2019 — including transfers through accounts at
"By looking the other way for decades, the banks allowed Epstein to have ready and reliable access to cash necessary to recruit, harbor and transport young women and underage girls for the purpose of human trafficking and sexual abuse," Wyden wrote in the letter released Thursday.
Wyden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
