The ‘Crazy’ Plot to Release the Epstein Files

How an unlikely duo of lawmakers partnered with victims to try to hold the powerful accountable

After the Justice Department announced in July that it would not share any more records, Representative Ro Khanna of California held a morning strategy meeting with his staff and asked for ideas for new bills. Sarah Drory, a young communications staffer who had never before spoken up in this meeting, had a suggestion: “What about a bill to release the Epstein files?”

The room was silent. Drory saw her more senior colleagues exchange confused or dismissive looks. One declared Epstein “a social-media thing.” On her walk home late that night, she called her boyfriend, second-guessing her suggestion. “Is that crazy?” she remembers asking him—and herself.

Three days later, Khanna introduced an amendment in the Rules Committee requiring the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files to gauge support and was surprised when a Republican congressman from South Carolina voted for it. After that vote, Massie called Khanna, and they discussed a long-shot idea late into the night: Could they convince other Republicans to do the same?

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This is the story, drawn from interviews with more than 40 people over the past eight months, of the unlikely coalition that came together to force some measure of accountability—and of what it hopes to accomplish next.

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