Wyden Sought Documents from DEA Following Revelation that Epstein and Several Co-Conspirators Were Targets of Major Interagency Drug Trafficking Investigation; Wyden Recently Learned Deputy Attorney General Blanche Intervened to Block DEA from Complying with Committee Probe
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) revealed today that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently intervened to block the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from releasing a key document related to a long-secret investigation of drug trafficking and prostitution by Jeffrey Epstein and several associates. The document Blanche is keeping hidden is a 2015 memorandum prepared by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, a unit within the Department of Justice that specialized in multiagency investigations of drug cartels and illicit finance. A heavily-redacted version of the memorandum was among documents released following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and Senator Wyden sought an unredacted copy last month. In a new letter to Blanche, Wyden wrote that Finance Committee investigators had been informed that the DEA was prepared to comply with his request until Blanche’s intervention, and Wyden demanded Blanche immediately authorize the DEA to turn over the unredacted memorandum.
“It has come to my attention that you are preventing the Drug Enforcement Administration from producing an unredacted copy of a report I requested regarding drug trafficking and money laundering by Jeffrey Epstein and several associates,” Wyden wrote. “Your alleged interference in this matter is highly disturbing, not just because it continues the DOJ’s long-running obstruction of my investigation, but also because of your bizarrely favorable treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Epstein’s closest criminal associates. I should not have to explain the significance of the fact that Epstein was a target of an OCDETF task force investigation. It suggests the government had ample evidence indicating he was engaged in large scale drug trafficking and prostitution as part of cross-border criminal conspiracy and that Epstein was likely pumping his victims, including underage girls, with incapacitating drugs to facilitate abuse. I am at a loss to understand why you are blocking further investigation of this matter.”
Senator Wyden’s complete letter to Blanche is below and available online here.
Dear Deputy Attorney General Blanche:
It has come to my attention that you are preventing the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) from producing an unredacted copy of a report I requested regarding drug trafficking and money laundering by Jeffrey Epstein and several associates. By withholding this unclassified document from the U.S. Congress, you are covering up for pedophiles and obstructing my investigation into the financing of Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking organization.
For years now, I have been conducting an investigation into the so-called “tax planning” conducted by Epstein to finance his criminal sex trafficking organization. As part of this investigation, I am following the money and examining the extent to which Epstein was able to utilize the U.S. financial system to make thousands of suspicious wire transfers and cash withdrawals for the apparent purpose of trafficking women and girls.
As you are aware, on February 25th I requested an unredacted copy of a memorandum prepared in 2015 by the Director of the DEA’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) related to Operation “Chain Reaction.” Operation “Chain Reaction” was a major investigation by the DEA’s elite OCDETF task force into drug trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering by Epstein’s criminal organization.
As you are also aware, the fact that Epstein was under investigation by OCDETF is a serious matter. OCDETF, which the Trump Administration recently dismantled, was a premier task force set up to identify, disrupt and dismantle major organized crime and drug trafficking operations. OCDETF 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 across international borders.
According to the heavily redacted version of this 69 page memorandum, which was recently unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) in response to the passage of Epstein Files Transparency Act (“EFTA”), Epstein and 14 other individuals and entities were being investigated for their involvement in “illegitimate wire transfers” which were “tied to illicit drug and/or prostitution activities occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City.” Public reports also indicate that Operation “Chain Reaction” found reason to believe that Epstein was involved in illicit funding and distribution of so-called club drugs, including ecstasy, ketamine and methamphetamines. Ketamine is often used to facilitate date rape by being slipped into beverages unbeknownst to victims of sexual assault.
It is my understanding that shortly after I requested an unredacted copy of this OCDETF memorandum, DOJ stepped in to prevent DEA from complying with my request. According to a confidential tip received by my staff, DEA Administrator Terry Cole was ready to provide an unredacted copy of the memorandum, but you stepped in to prevent him from doing so. My staff inquired with the DEA about the status of the production of this document and the DEA responded by directing questions to your office.
Your alleged interference in this matter is highly disturbing, not just because it continues the DOJ’s long-running obstruction of my investigation, but also because of your bizarrely favorable treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Epstein’s closest criminal associates. I should not have to explain the significance of the fact that Epstein was a target of an OCDETF task force investigation. It suggests the government had ample evidence indicating he was engaged in large scale drug trafficking and prostitution as part of cross-border criminal conspiracy and that Epstein was likely pumping his victims, including underage girls, with incapacitating drugs to facilitate abuse. I am at a loss to understand why you are blocking further investigation of this matter.
The excessive redactions of this memorandum related to “Chain Reaction” go well beyond the intent of the EFTA, which allows for redactions to protect the identity of victims, not members of a criminal sex trafficking organization. Additionally, the document is clearly marked as “unclassified” at the top of every single page. There is absolutely no reason to withhold an unredacted version of this document from the U.S. Congress.
In order to assist my investigation into this matter, I demand that you immediately authorize the release of this document. Now is not the time to cover up for Epstein and his network of criminal pedophiles and enablers.
Accordingly, please provide a fully unredacted copy of the May 18, 2015 memorandum prepared by the Director of the OCDETF Fusion center (OFC-TP-15-12392, SODOFC-15-12392, identified as EFTA00173953 in the DOJ’s digital Epstein files library).
Sincerely,
Ron Wyden
U.S. Senator
Background on Senator Wyden’s Epstein investigation: Senator Wyden’s Epstein investigation began in 2022 with an inquiry into the sex trafficker’s financial relationship with multi-billionaire Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management. In 2024, following a request from Finance Committee Democratic staff for access to Treasury’s Epstein files, the Biden administration allowed committee investigators to review more than a thousand pages of documents in person at the Treasury Department. Later that year Senator Wyden requested the Treasury produce the Epstein file for the committee to investigate further. He made the same request early in the Trump administration, which came into office promising a greater level of transparency on Epstein matters. He also obtained Leon Black’s settlement with the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands and released new information pertaining to Black’s payment of $170 million to Epstein over several years, ostensibly for tax and estate planning services. In June Senator Wyden again sought the Epstein files and laid out a blueprint for a proper follow-the-money investigation given the Trump administration’s refusal to act, and the following month he revealed that Epstein’s huge transactions and tax planning work may never have been investigated or audited by the IRS. In a letter to the Treasury Secretary sent in September, Senator Wyden identified several individuals with documented Epstein ties and again demanded the Epstein files. In November Senator Wyden released a detailed analysis of the ways in which JPMorgan Chase protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking operation through an egregious series of compliance failures spanning nearly two decades. In December Senator Wyden blasted the Trump administration for violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act by withholding the vast majority of the Epstein files it is legally required to release publicly, and he questioned why the Department of Justice had reportedly failed to question key Epstein co-conspirators in any criminal investigation related to Epstein’s trafficking network. In January he expanded his investigation with a new probe of Epstein’s relationship with Bank of New York Mellon and the hundreds of millions of dollars he moved in suspicious transactions through BNY accounts.
A web version of this release is here.
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