'American people deserve answers': Nancy Mace claims CIA 'most likely' had extensive contact with Epstein

Congresswoman Nancy Mace said on February 17 that she has sent a formal letter to C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe, requesting to "view any and all records, documents, images, video, photographs, communications, passports and other materials" related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. "Congress needs to know what, if any, relationship the CIA had with Jeffrey Epstein and what information they're sitting on," Mace wrote on X, adding, "The American people deserve answers about whether our intelligence agencies had connections to a child sex trafficker."

In her letter to the C.I.A. Director, Mace suggested that Epstein's influence reached far beyond social circles into global espionage and arms dealing. "Epstein did business or had ties to individuals who were involved in the CIA's Iran Contra scandal. One of Epstein's first clients was Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer who was the central middleman in the CIA's Iran-Contra Operation. Epstein oversaw the repurposing of CIA front/contractor "Southern Air Transport" for Leslie Wexner. Epstein worked for Douglas Leese, an arms dealer who introduced Epstein to Khashoggi. Epstein appears to have been an intermediary to Norinco, the Chinese state owned defense company, and Epstein held ties with the cofounder and owner of US defense contractor DynCorp," Mace wrote in her letter. 

Claiming that the National Resources Division (NR) of the CIA would likely have had extensive contact with Epstein over the years, Mace continued, “...we believe it is essential to Congress' oversight responsibilities and in the public interest to understand what relationship, if any, the CIA had with Jeffrey Epstein, and what information, if any, the CIA has about Epstein and his activities. We respectfully request the CIA search all records, classified and unclassified, to identify any records relating to Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and make those records available to us to review."

This is the latest of a series of statements the Republican lawmaker has made questioning the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of the Epstein Files. Last Thursday, she had sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding a full explanation for why documents from the Epstein Files were removed from the DOJ's public website after their initial release on January 30. In her letter, she claimed that while some documents were removed due to improper redactions, which exposed victims' identities and sexually explicit photographs, "other documents appear to have been removed and never restored." 

"The DOJ released these files, then quietly pulled some of them down without explanation. We want to know why," she had said, adding, "Those who enabled and participated in trafficking and abusing women and children MUST be exposed and held accountable. We don't care how powerful, how rich, or how famous they are." Saying that the DOJ "owes us an explanation" Mace had written, "If we hide names to protect the rich and powerful, we're proving we have a two tier justice system in America. One for the elite. One for everyone else. This is unacceptable. Victims deserve justice and Americans deserve the truth."