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The Oversight Committee chair said there will be public hearings and a “full report” from his committee by the end of the session.
Rep. James Comer said he plans to end his tenure atop the House Oversight Committee by holding public hearings on Jeffrey Epstein. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP
ByReese GormanandEd Demaria
July 1, 202611:33 AM
Rep. James Comer said he plans to end his tenure atop the House Oversight Committee by holding public hearings on Jeffrey Epstein, including possible testimony from some of his accusers, and issuing a report on the committee’s investigation before he shifts to a likely campaign for governor of Kentucky in 2027.
“We want to know the truth,” Comer said on theOn NOTUS podcast. “In the end, I would like to have a public hearing. I’ve invited many of the survivors to testify. They’re still trying to make a decision as to whether they want to. I’m not gonna force them to testify, but at the end of the day, we will do some type of report.”
“Hopefully we can have testimony from some of the people that were victimized by Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell,” Comer said.
Comer, who is limited to three terms as House Oversight Committee chair by GOP conference rules, said he expects the committee’s report to contain criminal referrals.
“We’ve found enough that I believe the Department of Justice should look into certain people,” Comer said. “We’re gonna do everything we can to hold anyone accountable who’s still alive.”
Despite his pledge for an official report, Comer said hestillfears it will be rejected by the public, much like the Warren Commission report on President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, because of the proliferation of conspiracy theories.
“You go through Martin Luther King, the UFO files, anything where there’s a lot of conspiracy theories, there’s always gonna be a segment of the population that don’t believe it,” Comer said. “I think a lot of the stuff circulating on the internet about the Clintons or [Bill] Gates, I don’t think is 100% accurate, but people will never believe that.”
"I fully expect criminal referrals." Rep. James Comer tells NOTUS that the House Oversight Committee plans to hold public hearings and release a report following their investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Comer, who lost the Kentucky Republican gubernatorial primary in 2015 by 83 votes, said he’s already touring the commonwealth ahead of a 2027 run, and attributes his strong starting position in the polls to his years spent appearing on television from his perch on the Oversight Committee.
“My name ID, thanks to Fox News and Newsmax and other media outlets, is very high,” Comer said. “Being on Fox News every day has changed my life.”
