[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 3, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S748-S751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HOUSING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT--Motion to Proceed--Continued
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2746
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, late last week, when I first scheduled this
consent request that is relating to Jeffrey Epstein's bank records, I
was not expecting it to be set against the backdrop of Donald Trump
dragging America into yet another war in the Middle East.
I will address the horrific crimes and worldwide financial network of
Mr. Epstein in a minute. Right at the outset, I need to address the
actions of the Trump administration this past weekend.
This is a war the American people do not want, a war that has already
cost American lives, a war the President and his scheming advisers have
not even tried to justify, a war Donald Trump kicked off at his private
club minutes before stepping out to celebrate at a glitzy fundraiser
where attendees spent $1 million per plate.
Now, I remember the debate about the Iraq war 20 years ago, including
the bad faith attacks against those of us who opposed it from the
start.
No doubt there will be a replay of that debate. There will be some
who say: War is on. It is time for everybody to line up behind the
President and every other issue has got to go by the wayside. That is
wrong.
It has been clear from the beginning that the core principle for this
administration is that Donald Trump gets to do what he wants, no matter
the cost, when he wants to. It doesn't matter to him how many American
soldiers die as a result of the war. It doesn't matter how many people
lose their health insurance or their livelihoods as a result of his
policies.
And in the case of Mr. Epstein, it doesn't matter how many pedophiles
and sex traffickers continue to walk the streets and prey on the
vulnerable while the Trump administration hides essential Epstein files
from the public.
The position of this administration is that Donald Trump can't do
anything wrong. He gets to do what he wants, and everybody else has to
obey. Ultimately, the American people aren't going to have it. I won't
either, and that was the message in my town meetings this past weekend.
The last thing that I am going to do is to slow down or walk away
from our 4-year investigation into Epstein's trafficking network
because Donald Trump decided to kick off another open-ended war in the
Middle East. So I am going to take just a few minutes to lay out why
the Senate needs to pass my legislation demanding the release of the
Epstein bank records that are at the Treasury Department.
Here is what Americans needs to know. Four years ago, my
investigators on the Finance Committee began digging into the so-called
tax planning that Jeffrey Epstein performed for one of the titans of
Wall Street. That man was Leon Black. That relationship spawned
sprawling financial ties, and Black had a curious story about their
relationship. Here was a guy worth billions and billions of dollars,
really a money-making machine.
He already employed the best tax and estate planning experts in the
Nation.
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But over the course of several years, Mr. Black paid Jeffrey Epstein
$170 million for what he claimed was tax and estate planning advice.
Keep in mind that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't a tax lawyer or an
accountant. The rates Black paid him were astronomical compared to what
he was paying the experts that he already employed. So my investigators
kept digging. What we found and what has been confirmed in more recent
Epstein reports is that this story is a sham.
Jeffrey Epstein wasn't really doing serious tax and estate work, and
Black's lawyers had to keep tabs on the advice he did give, which was
often shoddy.
Our investigation grew. In late 2023, we reached out to the Biden
Treasury Department and sought copies of the bank records that it had
on Mr. Epstein. The Biden Treasury Department wouldn't give us the
files, but they allowed my investigators to review them in-person and
to take notes.
That is how I am aware today that there is a massive file of Epstein
records at the Treasury Department. These are detailed bank records, a
roadmap of Epstein's financial history.
In fact, they are filings made by banks specifically to alert Federal
law enforcement to suspicious payments--evidence of possible financial
crimes. They are designed to help the Treasury investigators in the
Justice Department root out crimes like money laundering and
trafficking.
My investigators reviewed a large portion of them on Valentine's Day
2024. We learned that Jeffrey Epstein made 4,725 wire transfers adding
up to more than $1 billion in and out of his JPMorgan bank accounts in
the decade after 2003.
We learned that he moved hundreds of millions of dollars more through
accounts at Bank of New York Mellon and Deutsche Bank. We learned that
he used Russian correspondent bank accounts to process hundreds of
millions in payments associated with trafficking in Russia and Eastern
Europe.
In the portion of the Epstein bank records that my investigators saw,
there could be more than $1.5 billion in suspicious Epstein
transactions laid out for law enforcement to review.
Mr. President and colleagues, this is a staggering amount, and it is
inexplicably high based on what is currently known about Epstein's
sources of income. These Epstein records are not among the files the
Justice Department has released over the last few months.
The bill Congress passed requiring the release of the DOJ Epstein
files doesn't affect the records at the Treasury Department at all. And
the kicker, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is hiding these bank
records from Senate investigators.
The Secretary refused repeatedly to turn them over, and he has
refused to let us see what we already know is there. The administration
came in with a whole lot of bluster about whether they were going to
release the Epstein files. So I wanted to give them a chance to make
good on their word.
I requested the complete set of files from the Treasury multiple
times last spring and summer. Both times, I got denials. Secretary
Bessent has even gone out in public and downplayed their significance.
He has denied the Treasury has any investigative role with the Epstein
files at all.
At an appearance last summer, he said the Epstein files were
``sitting there'' at the Treasury Department and that the Department's
job was only to ``collect them.''
He said ``there were no files, per se, just hundreds and thousands of
reports'' and ``our job is simply to collect the reports.''
Let me be clear on this: Secretary Bessent is not telling the
American people the truth. A person with his background in finance
absolutely knows perfectly well what the Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network is all about. That is the law enforcement office within the
Treasury Department that collects the bank records.
And the Secretary hasn't shied away from getting involved in other
investigations. He has the Treasury Department launching all kinds of
efforts to help the Trump administration's deportation campaign in
Minnesota.
So the Secretary wants to have it both ways. When it comes to
investigating people in communities the Trump administration considers
to be adversaries, the Treasury Department and Mr. Bessent are totally
aggressive. When it comes to investigating pedophiles with connections
to Donald Trump, the files remain locked away.
So let me explain why it is important to break the Bessent hold on
these documents. They would help investigators learn who funded and who
enabled Epstein. They would help us see where his payments went. They
would help us identify any connections to organized crime. They would
help us learn more about Epstein's patterns, for example, how he
controlled women and girls by controlling their accounts.
They would help reveal how Epstein's henchmen, including those who
still control his estate, assisted in his crimes. That is the kind of
information the Treasury Secretary's stranglehold on these documents is
hiding from investigators. We have waited long enough.
But a week ago, there was a stunning news report that prompted my
decision to come to the Senate floor with the unanimous consent request
I will make today. CBS News reported on the existence of a mystery
Epstein investigation going back to 2010, an investigation the public
knew nothing about until now. It was spearheaded by the Drug
Enforcement Administration, and its targets were Epstein and 14 others.
It dealt with drug trafficking and money laundering in New York and the
Virgin Islands.
The existence of this probe was revealed by a long memorandum
prepared by one of the law enforcement agencies involved. That is an
agency that specialized in breaking up transnational organized crime.
Most of the 69-page memo was redacted, but the outlines are there. This
was a major investigation that began in 2010 and ran at least into
2015.
So now, I am working on obtaining an unredacted copy of this
memorandum from the Drug Enforcement Administration. There is no reason
for the Trump administration to withhold it. It literally says
``unclassified'' at the top of every page. I have got several other
questions about the investigation's conclusion and its findings.
One obvious takeaway is that the Senate cannot allow the Treasury
Secretary to keep the Epstein bank records hidden any longer. The
evidence out in public is clear. This wasn't some small-time operation
run by Epstein and Maxwell. It is a miscarriage of justice that they
are the only two persons who face prosecution in the United States.
Epstein's network spanned the globe. It involved extraordinarily
powerful and wealthy people. It involved serious financial crimes and
huge flows of money. And now, based on the revelation of a Drug
Enforcement Administration investigation, we now know as we stand here
today it may have involved drugs and drug cartels.
The Treasury Secretary in an administration that was interested in
justice would have a team of highly skilled investigators digging
through the Epstein bank records to assist with prosecutions.
Instead, Mr. Bessent, Pam Bondi, the entire Trump group in Congress,
and the administration is covering up for pedophiles, sex traffickers,
and, quite possibly, drug cartels.
If they are not going to do any investigating, the Senate ought to be
able to step in. That is what my bill is all about. It mandates that
the Treasury turn over these Epstein bank records to Senate
investigators.
We will do the job the Trump administration should have started on
day one. And there is an important new reason to pass the bill. There
is a lot of Epstein-related news that breaks nearly every day.
I would wager that a lot of banks where Epstein and his network did
business are following the news, maybe following this discussion, and
taking a second look at his transactions.
It is entirely possible that there are new bank filings coming in
today, and they are flagging a new set of suspicious transactions that
deserve investigation. The Treasury Secretary is blocking that
investigation from happening.
Before I wrap up, I just want to note this: I first sought these
documents in 2023, and that was under a Democratic administration. I
requested copies of
[[Page S750]]
them again in 2024 after my investigators reviewed a portion of them
in-person at the Treasury Department.
I am still frustrated that the Biden administration didn't provide
them. So nobody has a right to claim that we didn't come out on this
issue in a bipartisan way.
My investigation will move forward in other directions as well. I
continue to believe that some of the biggest banks on Wall Street were
among Epstein's biggest enablers. JPMorgan, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank,
and others had opportunity after opportunity to blow the whistle, and
they just kept looking the other way.
These aren't itty-bitty banks in Utah or Oregon. These were big Wall
Street banks, and they looked the other way.
And particularly in the case of JPMorganChase, the evidence shows
they knew what Epstein was up to, and they looked the other way because
he brought in mountains of cash. They waited until after he died to
flag more than 99 percent of his suspicious payments. By then, it was
too late to do any good in terms of stopping him.
So now, Congress must change the rules, and I intend to push this to
make sure that this kind of bank reporting to prevent this kind of
horrendous situation where so many young women and families were hurt--
I am going to make sure that this situation doesn't happen again.
There is a lot more to come from my investigation. From the
beginning, I have welcomed participation from both sides, and that
still stands. And my colleagues here in the Senate, Democrats and
Republicans, know that my door is open to all of them.
We are going to stay at it until we have all the facts because they
are not blue and red. And then I am going to have a major reform effort
so the Wall Street banks can never, never, never hurt the American
people the way they have by handling the Epstein investigation.
I strongly hope my colleagues will support my request to pass my
bill, the Produce Epstein Treasury Records Act. There is no excuse for
the Secretary of the Treasury to continue blocking our access to the
Epstein bank records.
So, therefore, Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask
unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from
further consideration of S. 2746 and the Senate proceed to its
immediate consideration; that the Wyden substitute amendment, which is
at the desk, be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be
considered read a third time and passed; and that the motions to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, there is no
debate that Jeffrey Epstein's crimes of sexual abuses and other crimes
are appalling. And the investigation there is, ongoing, must focus on
bringing those who participated to justice.
The Justice Department already has been tasked and has tasked about
500 lawyers to publicly release over 3 million pages, 180,000 images,
and 2,000 videos in response to President Trump having signed the
Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19, 2025.
According to one New York Times article, the current pile of pages
would reach to the top of the Empire State Building.
Since the House of Representatives took the lead on moving the
Epstein Files Transparency Act, it is not surprising that the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Judiciary
Committee are now leading the congressional review of the millions of
pages of documents from the Justice Department. The House Oversight
Committee is particularly busy reviewing documents relating to
corporate, nonprofit, academic, and governmental entities with known or
alleged ties to Epstein's web of financial networks that were turned
over by the U.S. Justice Department on January 31, along with documents
turned over earlier by the Epstein estate.
The House Oversight Committee also specifically requested these
Treasury documents that have been talked about here today from the
Department of Treasury and requested that the Department provide all
suspicious activities reports, or SARS, and accompanying material filed
relating to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein for
its independent review.
That is these very files that the Treasury Department was asked to
release and provide. Treasury replied that it would fully cooperate
with the committee and that it will work alongside other relevant
Federal Agencies to deliver on the request as thoroughly as possible.
The subpoenas, depositions, and SAR requests made between the two
House committees are part of a very robust investigatory process, one
which deals with massive amounts of information and patterns of
activity collected over a 20-year period.
The Finance Committee has one of the broadest committee jurisdictions
in the Senate, but it is the Banking Committee, not the Finance
Committee, which has specific subject matter jurisdiction over bank
suspicious activity reports and a more particular expertise with
reading and handling of those documents.
At this stage, while the House committees are pursuing the same exact
information from the same Agencies and the Agencies have agreed, by law
passed in the House and Senate, to release those materials, it would
not be helpful for either the Senate Finance or the Senate Banking
Committee to confound the process by attempting to duplicate or compete
with their work while adding more stress to the Department struggling
to keep up with the pace of congressional demands.
Mr. President, for these reasons I object to my colleague's request.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am going to be very brief.
First of all, as my colleague knows, we are talking about a different
set of files. I am concerned about the Treasury Department. What my
colleague is talking about is essentially the Justice Department.
And what is needed here is more investigations rather than less, and
nobody has the expertise that we have on the Senate Finance Committee.
The Treasury Secretary knows that, and that is why his strategy is just
to slow-walk this. He is just hoping this disappears.
Well, I have said it at home, and I have said it again at a townhall
meeting: I want everybody to know that we are not going anywhere on
this. We are going to stay at it until all the information comes out.
We are going to have a bank reform proposal.
My colleague is on the Banking Committee. I look forward to him
seeing my bank reform proposal because these Wall Street banks behaved
abominably.
They saw what was going on. I happen to think one of the reasons they
did it is because they liked the fact that Epstein was giving them
referrals.
So my colleague and I agree on a number of issues. Pharmaceutical
benefit managers would be one. But we couldn't disagree more on this.
And until the slow-walking ends, the investigation that I have launched
and has taken place over 4 years and has blown the whistle on a lot of
important steps, it is a beginning. We will stay at it until we have
got real reform.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, just to make one quick clarification, I am
not just talking about the Justice Department. The Treasury Department
has agreed to release the exact files that have been demanded and has
said that they will provide them as thoroughly and as quickly as
possible to the House Oversight Committee.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, we will make this really brief.
I have made a number of requests specifically for the information
that my colleague has now described as something that is going to come
out.
I will believe it when I see it.
What I do know is the Treasury Department has stonewalled us every
single day through the Trump administration.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
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