The limited release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents on Friday has sparked renewed scrutiny of the Trump Justice Department, as more records are still expected to be disclosed despite the deadline passing. But according to a CNN legal analyst, the problem may be baked into the law itself.
Speaking on CNN, former federal prosecutor Elliott Williams said the Justice Department’s handling of the deadline exposes a major flaw in Congress’s mandate.
“The big challenge here is that in Congress’s law, they did not write in a penalty or a way for someone to sue,” Williams said. “And so the question is, if the Justice Department has not met the letter or the spirit of the law, then what happens?”
Williams noted that when agencies know they will miss a deadline, there are established ways to address it. “That happens all the time,” he said. “You issue a status report or whatever to the court or to Congress or whatever.”
But without an enforcement method, Williams added, there are few realistic consequences even if the Justice Department fell short.
“That doesn’t really have what’s called standing,” the CNN legal analyst said, explaining that victims or outside parties would encounter obstacles in court if they chose to sue either Congress or the Justice Department over the delay.
“The obvious thing to happen would be for Congress to call the Justice Department in and just ask them questions,” he said. “Now, the extreme would be Congress holding the attorney general or members of the Justice Department in contempt,” Williams said, but quickly added: “Get that out of your head because that’s not going to happen.”
Ultimately, Williams said, accountability is largely lacking. “There’s just no way to enforce it, really,” he concluded. “You just have to hope that they did a good job.”
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