(L-R) Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton and Diana Ross in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.

House Democrat demands investigation into 1996 FBI complaint about Epstein

· Yahoo News

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee called on the Justice Department's internal watchdog to investigate new revelations that Jeffrey Epstein was first reported to the FBI for alleged sex crimes in 1996, a decade before an official FBI investigation was opened.

"For survivors like Maria Farmer, her family, and all the people Jeffrey Epstein abused in the decades that followed this unanswered complaint, this was not merely a missed investigative opportunity—it was a profound betrayal by their own government," Rep. Robert Garcia, of California, wrote on Tuesday, Dec. 23, in a letter addressed to William Blier, the Justice Department's acting inspector general.

Garcia's request comes after a 1996 complaint filed by Maria Farmer, an Epstein accuser, was made public as part of the Justice Department's massive release of new documents in the Epstein case. In the complaint, Farmer accused Epstein of stealing pictures she took of her 12 and 16-year-old sisters and threatening to burn her house down if she told anyone about them.

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An FBI investigation would not be opened into Epstein's alleged grooming and trafficking of young girls for another decade.

(L-R) Ghislaine Maxwell and Mick Jagger in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
(L-R) Mick Jagger, an unidentified woman and Bill Clinton in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
(L-R) Richard Branson and Jefferey Epstein in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
Jefferey Epstein in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
Jefferey Epstein in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
Bill Clinton with an unidentified woman in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
A book titled "Massage for Dummies" is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from the Jefferey Epstein files. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.
Sarah Ferguson, at the time Britain's Duchess of York, is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice as part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.

What do the Epstein files show? See photos released by DOJ

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(L-R) Michael Jackson, Bill Clinton and Diana Ross in a photo that was part of thousands of files related to Jefferey Epstein released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 19, 2025. The images were released by the US DOJ without location information, dates or context.

"Despite these harrowing allegations, the FBI failed to pursue a thorough investigation at the time and even failed to provide Ms. Farmer with any meaningful follow-up to her complaint for a full decade," Garcia wrote.

Farmer's name is redacted in the complaint, but when it was recently released as part of a tranche of files related to the case, she quickly identified herself as the person who filed it.

More: Jeffrey Epstein survivor 'redeemed' by release of her 1996 FBI complaint

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"Complainant stated that she is a professional artist and took pictures of her sisters 12 and 16 years for her own personal artwork," the complaint states. "Epstein stole the photos and is believed to have sold the pictures to potential buyers."

“Epstein at the time requested [redacted] to take pictures of young girls at swimming pools. Epstein is now threatening [redacted] that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down.”

Epstein stole nudes of Farmer's sisters, she alleges

Farmer worked for Epstein as an art scout, according to a lawsuit she filed against the government. During a trip to Epstein's Ohio residence in 1996, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his yearslong paramour who was sentenced to two decades in prison for abusing young girls, sexually assaulted her, she alleged in the lawsuit.

Farmer had taken nude or semi-nude pictures of her two sisters for a graduate art school class, according to Jennifer Freeman, her lawyer. During a visit to one of Epstein's homes in Ohio, she found a lockbox containing the pictures had been forced open and they were missing, according to a lawsuit Farmer filed.

Annie Farmer, the sister of Maria Farmer, who filed a complaint against Epstein with the FBI in 1996.

After Farmer filed the complaint, the FBI did not open an investigation into Epstein for another decade. That investigation was shut down in 2007, and Epstein was granted a non-prosecution agreement the next year.

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One of Farmer's sisters, Annie Farmer, was one of the four women who testified against Maxwell in her 2021 trial.

Farmer said on Dec. 19 that the release of the 1996 complaint was a "moment for which I have waited three decades, over half of my life."

"When I was ignored and hung up on by the FBI in 1996, my world turned upside down, and I felt frozen in time," she said in a statement.

"When my FBI reports are finally made available, I am hopeful that I will be able to pick up where I left off at age 26."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Garcia demands investigation into 1996 FBI Epstein complaint