On Monday, February 23, Daniel Ruetenik, Pat Milton, and Cara Tabachnick of CBS News reported a newly uncovered document in the Epstein files shows that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was running an investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and fourteen other people for drug trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering.
This investigation—which is different from the sex trafficking case under way when he died—began on December 17, 2010, under the Obama administration and was still operating in 2015. A heavily redacted document in the Epstein files from the director of the DEA’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) said “DEA reporting indicates the above individuals are involved in illegitimate wire transfers which are tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City.” The investigation was named “Chain Reaction.”
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, described OCDETF as “a premier task force set up to identify, disrupt and dismantle major organized crime and drug trafficking operations.” It “worked with partners across federal agencies to conduct sophisticated investigations into transnational organized crime and money laundering. OCDETF frequently targeted dangerous drug cartels , the Russian mafia and violent gangs moving fentanyl and weapons.” The Trump administration dismantled OCDETF.
The document is 69 pages long and is heavily redacted. It comes from a request by the DEA to an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center in Virginia for information from other agencies related to Epstein and the other targets. A law enforcement source told the reporters that a request to the Fusion Center is not routine, which suggests the investigation was a “significant” one.
Wyden has been investigating the finances behind Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking organization. His investigation has turned up the information that JPMorgan Chase neglected to report more than $4 billion in suspicious financial transactions linked to Epstein. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has refused to produce the records to the Senate Finance Committee, and in September, Wyden introduced the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act (PETRA) to get access to them. In November, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but it did not cover Treasury financial records.
“The basic question here is whether a bunch of rich pedophiles and Epstein accomplices are going to face any consequences for their crimes,” Wyden said, “and Scott Bessent is doing his best to make sure they won’t. My head just about exploded when I heard Bessent say it wasn’t his department’s job to investigate these Epstein bank records…. From the beginning, my view has been 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. It’s past time for Bessent to quit running interference for pedophiles and give us the Epstein files he’s sitting on.”
When the CBS News reporters broke the story about the DEA investigation, Wyden said: “It appears Epstein was involved in criminal activity that went way beyond pedophilia and sex trafficking, which makes it even more outrageous that [Attorney General] Pam Bondi is sitting on several million unreleased files.”
On Wednesday, February 23, Wyden wrote to Terrance C. Cole, administrator of the DEA, noting that “[t]he fact that Epstein was under investigation by the DOJ’s OCDETF task force suggests that there was ample evidence indicating that Epstein was engaged in heavy drug trafficking and prostitution as part of cross-border criminal conspiracy. This is incredibly disturbing and raises serious questions as to how this investigation by the DEA was handled.”
He noted that Epstein and the fourteen co-conspirators were never charged for drug trafficking or financial crimes, and wrote: “I am concerned that the DEA and DOJ during the first Trump Administration moved to terminate this investigation in order to protect pedophiles.” He also noted that the heavy redactions in the document appear to go far beyond anything authorized by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and since the document was not classified, “there is no reason to withhold an unredacted version of this document from the U.S. Congress.
Wyden asked Cole to produce a number of documents by March 13, 2026, two weeks away. Wyden asked for an unredacted copy of the memo in the files, information about what triggered the investigation, what types of drugs Epstein and his fourteen associates were buying or selling, when operation “Chain Reaction” concluded and what was its result, why no one was charged, and why the names of the fourteen co-conspirators were redacted.
Asked by a reporter about Epstein today, Trump said: “I don’t know anything about the Epstein files. I’ve been fully exonerated.”
Trump’s name is, in fact, all through the Epstein files, and the DOJ’s clumsy attempt to hide files that discuss him has only called attention to them. The recent news that the DOJ withheld files about allegations that Trump raped a 13-year-old girl has raised suggestions of an illegal coverup, whether the allegations are true or not. Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, says he will open an investigation.
Now the DOJ says it will review whether the files about Trump were improperly withheld, although the fact that the administration has hung a giant image of Trump’s face on the outside of its building undermines confidence that the DOJ is, in fact, following the law impartially.
Led by chair James Comer (R-KY), the Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee required former first lady Hillary Clinton to testify before it yesterday, despite her testimony under oath that she had never met Epstein and knew Maxwell only as an acquaintance and despite the fact that she is not mentioned in the Epstein files.
As Kaivan Shroff noted in the Daily Beast, the Republicans are working to “revive as much Hillary hate as they can,” but they are likely going to regret dragging Clinton back into the spotlight. She is embracing her role as a public figure who can stand up to Trump, appearing both in the U.S. and internationally to engage on a range of issues. As Shroff notes, Clinton has been “one of the Democratic Party’s most battle-tested figures, and she is speaking up once again—not for a campaign, not for validation, but with the clarity that comes from having nothing left to lose.”
By going after Clinton, Republicans have also opened the way for the Democrats to demand that the Trumps testify. On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” panelists noted that while Clinton didn’t know Epstein, there are many photos of First Lady Melania Trump with him, along with her husband and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Host Joe Scarborough said “Comer got the wrong first lady.” And, he added, “today he’s got the wrong president.”
Today former president Bill Clinton testified for more than six hours under oath before the committee at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, New York. He is the first president to be compelled to testify before Congress under threat of criminal contempt charges. In his opening statement, Clinton appeared to be referencing Trump when he said: “I’m here today for two reasons. The first is that I love my country. And America was built upon the idea that no person is above the law, even Presidents—especially Presidents.” In contrast to Trump and Bondi, both of whom have refused to acknowledge Epstein’s victims—now survivors—Clinton highlighted them: “The second reason I’m here is that the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing. They’ve been waiting too long for both.”
In calling out the committee for forcing his wife to testify, Clinton alluded to the Republicans’ attempt to spin the testimony for political points. Clinton noted that even though he was the only one sworn in that morning, “everyone has a responsibility to be honest with those they represent. Whether you raised your right hand or not, each and every one of us owes nothing less than truth and accuracy to the American people.”
Clinton told the committee he “had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing…. I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong. As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing—I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals.”
Clinton also told the committee he would often tell it he didn’t recall. “This was all a long time ago. And I am bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess.”
Like Trump, Clinton is named in the Epstein files; unlike Trump, he is not accused of crimes in any public files. But Clinton had a relationship with both Epstein and Maxwell, and as part of his work with the Clinton Global Initiative after he left office, he traveled on Epstein’s plane about two dozen times, to Europe, Africa, Asia, Russia, Miami, and New York. Clinton reiterated today that he never traveled to Epstein’s island in the Caribbean, where much of the sexual abuse of children took place. Although Trump has repeatedly accused Clinton of visiting the island, Trump’s own White House chief of staff Susie Wiles says Trump is wrong about that, and has confirmed that Clinton was never there.
Kayla Epstein of the BBC recalled that in his memoir, Clinton wrote: “The bottom line is, even though it allowed me to visit the work of my foundation, traveling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward. I wish I had never met him.”
Tonight, former president Clinton posted a video message reiterating the main points of his opening statement and concluding: “When the video of my testimony today is released, I hope it will motivate everyone to go in front of Congress to say what they know. I hope it will motivate the Justice Department to finally release all the files and to ensure that this never happens again. The survivors deserve that.”
During a break in Clinton’s deposition, Comer told reporters that “the president went on to say that [Trump] has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved. And he meant with Epstein.” Comer has used closed-door hearings to salt the media with unfounded stories for years now, and as he undoubtedly intended, the media has run with this characterization as an accurate description of what Clinton said.
But Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, later told reporters that Comer’s comment didn’t accurately reflect Clinton’s answer. “I think the best response to that would be to view the complete record of what actually he said,” Garcia suggested. “We’re not going to disclose what was said because that’s not in the rules. The Republicans keep breaking the rules…. Let’s release the full transcript, so you can all get a full record of what was actually said.”
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Notes:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-files-dea-document-drug-trafficking-investigation/
bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-11-07/reagan-era-crime-unit-officially-shut-down-by-doj
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-dea-drug-trafficking-investigation-senator-wyden/
https://www.rawstory.com/melania-2675348908/
https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2026/02/20260227-clinton-opening-statement.pdf
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp85jdqdyq7o
https://www.newsweek.com/what-bill-clinton-said-donald-trump-epstein-deposition-11595279
Bluesky:
wyden.senate.gov/post/3mftyu6do2k2l
atrupar.com/post/3mfuclypgos22
macfarlanenews.bsky.social/post/3mfttii3exk2n
plaintanjane.bsky.social/post/3mfvht7vlgc27
This post has been syndicated from Letters from an American, where it was published under this address.