WASHINGTON- Rep. Robert Garcia and his team faced a monumental task on Nov. 5: sifting through more than 20,000 documents obtained from Jeffrey Epstein's estate in search of anything that would shed more light on President Trump's relationship with the now-deceased convicted sex offender.
After six tedious days combing through records, Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and four staff members identified three emails that would spark a political firestorm.
In the emails, Epstein wrote that Trump had “spent hours” at the late financier's home with one of his victims and that he “knew about the girls,” suggesting that the president knew more about Epstein's abuse than he had previously acknowledged. The estate turned over the emails to the committee after receiving a subpoena.
“We think [the emails] “It really raised questions about the relationship between the president and Jeffrey Epstein,” Garcia said in an interview last week. “We knew we had to get them out as soon as possible.”
Garcia's plan to release the emails quickly thrust the second-term Democrat into the national spotlight, raising his profile as Trump's chief antagonist on an issue that has dogged the president since his first term. It also increased pressure on the White House to release its Epstein investigation files.
Claims in Epstein's emails about Trump's involvement in or knowledge of Epstein's wrongdoing have not been corroborated, and the White House has denied the veracity of those accounts.
The White House accused Democrats of “selectively” leaking emails to create a “false narrative to smear President Trump,” adding that Democrats redacted the name of one of the victims, Virginia Giuffre, who committed suicide in April and had previously said she had not witnessed Trump participating in the abuse at Epstein's home.
The Nov. 12 email revelations led committee Republicans to release the full set of records just hours later. At the same time, Democrats (joined by a handful of Republicans) were on the verge of forcing a House vote to force the Justice Department to release its Epstein files. Days later, Trump urged Republican lawmakers to back the bill he had long resisted and finally signed it into law.
“If we hadn't released the initial emails, the Republicans probably wouldn't have released anything,” Garcia said. “They never publish anything until we pressure them and put public pressure on them.”
Garcia said Democrats were prepared to release the full set themselves, but incrementally over the course of the week, arguing that such release had to be done carefully to protect victims' privacy.
Republicans on the committee have criticized the minority party's approach, arguing that it focuses on sensationalizing select pieces of information to harm Trump and politicize the Epstein investigation.
“The most dangerous place in DC is between Robert Garcia and a cable news camera,” said Republican strategist Matthew Gorman. “This is simply a ploy to draw more attention to himself, and he is using this number to do so.”
“Sometimes you have to hit back harder”
García's allies see the 47-year-old's rise as predictable and a reflection of his past.
Born in Peru, García immigrated to the United States as a child and obtained citizenship in his early 20s. He later became Long Beach's first Latino and openly gay mayor before coming to Washington, where he is now one of the youngest to serve as ranking member of the House's top investigative panel.
Five months after taking office, Garcia says he remains in disbelief that he is in the position held by people like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), whom he considers one of his “heroes.”
“Being in a place where I am doing the work that he was doing when I came to Congress a couple of years ago is not something I expected,” García said. “I want to contribute as best I can and confront this corruption, confront what's happening with the Jeffrey Epstein case and hold the administration accountable.”
The oversight committee is one of the House's highest-profile panels and its chairman, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, has broad subpoena power. Comer, a staunch Trump ally, has been leading a review of the government's investigation into Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Comer has subpoenaed both Epstein's estate and the Department of Justice.
Comer declined to be interviewed for this article, as did other House Republicans. But Comer told Politico last week that he was “done with Garcia” and that the Democrat had “burned his bridges with this.”
“He just needs to make TikTok videos or something… He's not a serious researcher. He's like a TikTok video maker type of person,” Comer said.
García responded to Comer's comments with a reference to the movie “Mean Girls.”
“Why is he so obsessed with me?” he said Wednesday in an Instagram post, an example of how Garcia often uses pop culture to communicate with a more general audience.
Garcia says his tactics are motivated by an allergy to bullies.
“I grew up as an immigrant kid… I know what it's like to be on the other side of the bully,” he said. “If the bully is going to hit you or hurt you or other people you care about, you have to hit back. Sometimes you have to hit back harder.”
Democrats credit Garcia for pressuring Comer to act. In July, a Republican-led subcommittee approved a Democratic-led motion to subpoena Epstein's documents from the Justice Department, a move that ultimately led Comer to issue his subpoenas.
Rep. Robert Garcia speaks at a swearing-in ceremony in Long Beach in August to commemorate his new role as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
(Jonathan Alcorn / For The Times)
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, said the vote “started toppling the dominoes” that eventually led the public to see a copy of Epstein’s “50th birthday book,” which includes Trump’s name as well as the three emails linking Trump to Epstein.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), a member of the oversight committee, praised Garcia for winning bipartisan support to obtain documents and make records public. Khanna, who led the effort to force a House vote to require the Justice Department to release Epstein's files, also co-wrote a letter with Garcia to Epstein's estate requesting an unredacted copy of the birthday book.
The estate's attorneys said they would cooperate, but that required a summons publish materials due to privacy concerns. Khanna said he believes the letter set in motion the momentum that ultimately led Comer to cite the estate.
“I think the way he worked with Comer to make sure that much of the investigation was bipartisan has been effective,” Khanna said in an interview.
A 'dynamic' approach to supervision
Garcia, known for using social media and pop culture to amplify his message, has incorporated those communication tactics into his role on the oversight committee.
On the day the emails were released, Garcia promoted them in social media posts and videos and gave multiple interviews. The congressman, a self-described Bravo fan, is scheduled to appear this week on the cable channel's “What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) told the Times that Garcia's “dynamic” leadership approach is creating new ways to communicate to a younger generation about the work Congress is doing.
“He seems to thrive on that, and it's a pleasure to behold,” the former speaker said. “He is young, but he has convinced members and the public about what the challenge is.”
Rep. Robert Garcia speaks with Mayor Karen Bass at a Congressional field hearing in the Metropolitan Water District on Monday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Republicans on the committee have accused Garcia and Democrats of intentionally using the Epstein investigation to generate a false narrative against Trump, a criticism that Democrats see as Garcia's willingness to “fight fire with fire.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, who served on the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Garcia's push to seek records “outside traditional channels,” including Epstein's estate, helped fuel a “public narrative that broke through.”
“Under such a lawless and corrupt administration, we need talented and creative leaders to do oversight work, expose misconduct to the public, and navigate a fractured media environment, and Congressman Garcia has proven himself adept at all three,” Schiff said.
Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump administration appointee, said Garcia's strategy could backfire if all the information about the Epstein investigation comes to light.
“I think they've opened Pandora's box with a bunch of conspiracy theories, fake memes, and news stories that the left is fully embracing that may not actually be real,” he said.
With more records from Epstein's estate expected to come to light in the coming weeks, Garcia says he is committed to exposing wrongdoing by anyone, regardless of party. The documents have already shown Epstein's ties to prominent Democrats.
The records have also shown ties to major banks, a thread Garcia believes could be central to understanding Epstein's plea deal negotiated by a prosecutor who served in Trump's Cabinet during his first term.
“I'm not interested in protecting anyone,” he said. “I am interested in seeing justice for the survivors.”
