House Oversight Chair James Comer went on CNN to tout his big Jeffrey Epstein document dump, and wound up admitting most of it was old news. In a Wednesday media blitz, the Kentucky Republican told anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown that roughly 97 percent of the 33,000-plus pages his committee posted were already in the public domain. “Well, the 3% that weren’t public, that’s 3% more than Joe Biden released,” Comer said, conceding the bulk of the release was previously available material.
The exchange capped a whirlwind 24 hours in Washington as the GOP-led Oversight Committee unloaded tens of thousands of pages tied to the long-running Epstein saga. Democrats immediately blasted the move as a glorified re-upload, arguing that victims and the public deserve new information, not a paper flood designed to look like transparency. Reports emphasized that about 97% of what hit the site had already been out there, with under 1,000 pages offering anything new, mostly flight-log snippets and assorted records.
Comer Concedes On CNN 97 Percent Of Epstein Files He Released Were Already Public: ‘That’s 3 Percent More’ https://t.co/sqYHe3LHnO
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 3, 2025
Comer, for his part, leaned hard on the argument that the 3 percent that is new still matters. He promised more releases once staff scrubs victim-identifying details, and he vowed to publish names of anyone his committee can credibly tie to trips to Epstein’s private island.
He also insisted President Trump’s administration is complying with Oversight subpoenas and will deliver additional records. Comer’s assertion about cooperation, and his 3% line, came during his CNN hits with Blitzer and Brown.
The optics aren’t great. Survivors and their advocates had been promised a watershed moment, and instead got a document dump that functioned like a giant déjà vu. Media outlets noted the redundancy, with coverage emphasizing that the tranche contained little in the way of revelatory “client list” material, despite weeks of teases from Capitol Hill.
Holy smokes. Oversight Chairman James Comer just broke some major news.
1) Alex Acosta is coming in to testify in couple weeks.
2) Epstein documents are currently being uploaded for full transparency.
“We subpoenaed six former attorneys general, as well as Bill Clinton and… pic.twitter.com/mCKmMz8LWU
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 2, 2025
Meanwhile, the people at the center of the story are still waiting. In a separate NBC segment this week, Epstein survivors and family members said they continue to be kept in the dark by federal authorities, complaining that major moves, from Ghislaine Maxwell’s custody status to DOJ interviews, often happen without even a heads-up. Their message to Congress was simple: stop grandstanding and release everything of substance, with appropriate redactions to protect victims.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer: “I can tell you from listening to the six [Epstein] survivors in there today that the government has failed them… So we’re going to do everything we can to make this right for the victims.” pic.twitter.com/dYYgw3H8eS
— Kristen Eskow (@KristenEskow) September 2, 2025
Comer argues that’s exactly what he’s trying to do, framing the release as a first step and promising more to come. But his on-air admission handed Democrats fresh ammunition: if nearly all of it was already public, what did this week actually accomplish beyond headlines and hashtags? Even sympathetic observers acknowledge the committee now faces a credibility test, either produce genuinely new, verifiable material or risk looking like it’s padding the record.
On the biggest transparency stage of his chairmanship, Comer delivered volume, not bombshells, and then said the quiet part out loud on CNN. For survivors demanding answers, for lawmakers pushing the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” and for a public drowning in speculation, 3 percent may not cut it. The pressure is now on Oversight to turn a data dump into real disclosure.
