TLDR
As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has dual jurisdiction over both DOJ compliance and the financial crimes documented in the Epstein corpus — yet has scheduled no hearing on either front despite publicly stating the law "was clear."
Dual Jurisdiction, Zero Hearings
Sen. Chuck Grassley is the longest-serving senator in Iowa history, holding office since 1981. At 92, he serves as President Pro Tempore of the Senate — third in the line of presidential succession — and chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee while sitting on the Finance Committee (U.S. Senate, 2026). His office is located at 135 Hart Senate Office Building, and his office phone is (202) 224-3744.
This dual positioning gives Grassley something no other member of Congress possesses: simultaneous jurisdiction over DOJ compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and over the financial institutions that enabled the Epstein operation. He has used neither (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
Grassley's Public Statements vs. Committee Action
Grassley has not been silent on the Epstein files. He stated publicly that the law "was clear" and that DOJ should release all files (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026). He questioned FBI Director Kash Patel directly, demanding that the Bureau turn over all records. He declared that "victims deserve an answer" (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
These statements establish that Grassley understands both the legal mandate and the moral stakes. What they did not produce was a single Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on DOJ noncompliance. The Department declared its January 30, 2026 release "final" at approximately 58% of 6 million-plus identified pages — a 42% gap — and Grassley's committee has not called a single DOJ official to testify under oath about that gap (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
The Financial Dimension
The Epstein corpus documents financial activity that falls squarely within the Finance Committee's jurisdiction. The records contain $24.1 million in wire transfers across 224 transactions, including transfers routed through shell entities and offshore structures (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026). The New York Department of Financial Services imposed a $150 million consent order against Deutsche Bank for compliance failures related to the Epstein relationship — one of the largest penalties in NYDFS history (NYDFS Consent Order, Deutsche Bank AG, 2020).
The Finance Committee has jurisdiction over financial institutions, banking regulation, and the anti-money laundering framework that Deutsche Bank and other institutions failed to enforce. Grassley sits on that committee. He has not requested a hearing on the banking failures documented in the corpus (PAPER TRAIL Project, 2026).
What Iowa Constituents Should Know
Iowa voters have sent Chuck Grassley to Washington for more than four decades in part because of his reputation as a tenacious overseer of federal agencies. He built a career on whistleblower protections and inspector general reforms. The Epstein Files Transparency Act passed with near-unanimous support, DOJ has complied with barely more than half of it, and the corpus documents tens of millions of dollars in suspicious financial activity that existing banking regulations were designed to catch. Grassley holds the two committee gavels most relevant to both problems. Whether constituents in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and across Iowa hear testimony under oath depends entirely on whether their senior senator schedules the hearings his own public statements suggest are necessary.
The 419 surveillance videos his Judiciary Committee could investigate show a phase-driven staffing failure at MCC. The financial jurisdiction overlaps with Rep. Lynch and Rep. Sherman on the House side.
References
Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pub. L. No. 119-38 (2025). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4405
NYDFS Consent Order, Deutsche Bank AG (2020). New York Department of Financial Services.
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026). Congressional oversight actions, March 2026 [Data set].
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026). DOJ compliance status [Data set].
PAPER TRAIL Project. (2026). Financial transaction analysis [Data set].
U.S. Senate. (2026). Member directory [Data set].
This investigation is part of the SubThesis accountability journalism network.