A bill introduced on Wednesday is calling for a congressional probe into the financial relationship between the MAGA mega-donor Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, of Oregon, has demanded that the Treasury Department hand over documents related to the sex trafficker’s finances, which The New York Times revealed in June included $40 million in investments to a Thiel-backed firm.
Those investments in Valar Ventures, in 2015 and 2016, are now worth nearly $170 million and are reportedly the Epstein estate’s largest asset. Now, Wyden wants a closer look at how—and why—an alleged $1.5 billion moved between Thiel, Epstein, and 70 other “co-conspirators.”
Wyden, a 76-year-old ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, said such a bill is necessary because Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has refused to honor the committee’s requests to view Epstein-related financial documents in his possession.
“The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes, and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they won’t,” he said. “My head just about exploded when I heard Bessent say it wasn’t his department’s job to investigate these Epstein bank records.”
Wyden said he’s long believed that “following the money is the key to identifying Epstein’s clients as well as the henchmen and banks that enabled his sex trafficking network.”
His statement on Wednesday added, “It’s past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files he’s sitting on.”
In addition to investigating Thiel, who is CEO of Palantir, Wyden said he hopes a congressional probe will uncover whether J.P. Morgan and other banks violated federal anti-money laundering laws.
A representative for Thiel, who Forbes estimates is worth $25 billion, did not respond to a request for comment. The 57-year-old has not publicly addressed his firm’s financial relationship with Epstein.
Wyden’s bill is titled the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (PETRA). Below The Belt(way) reported that Wyden attached his legislation to the National Defense Authorization Act, which will guarantee that all senators will have to go on the record for or against exposing details about Epstein’s associates.
Investigating Epstein used to be a largely non-partisan issue, with the MAGA base being among the most prominent skeptics that the disgraced financier killed himself in a New York prison cell in 2019. President Donald Trump campaigned on releasing the so-called “Epstein Files,” but he has since done a 180 on the issue.
Trump, 79, is now pleading with the public to move on from Epstein, but the story—and their previous friendship, allegedly complete with handwritten poems and doodles—has only grown by the day.
Republicans hold a three-seat voting majority in the Senate, meaning Wyden’s bill will require some GOP lawmakers to break with the party line to pass. Bessent, a Trump appointee, has not indicated that he plans to offer up documents freely to the committee and said last month that the Treasury Department does not possess the power to investigate. In that same spiel, he said it might have to investigate Wyden.
“Any law enforcement person who wants to come and see them, we hold them. Our job—we are not detectives. We collect them. It’s just like the—when we make payments, the Treasury, the Commerce Department, tells us to make a payment. We are a paymaster,” Bessent said. “Sen. Wyden’s rich… Sen. Wyden trades better than Paul Pelosi. He was up 125 percent and then 75 percent. So, I would—I’m not going to disclose anything because I’ve never looked, but I would guess there’s some stories on Sen. Wyden.”
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