Republican Says Colleagues 'Compromised' Over Jeffrey Epstein Flight Logs

Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, a Republican, said that the flight logs of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein aren't being publicly released because too many of his "colleagues" would be involved.

Talking on The Chris Salcedo Show on Newsmax on Monday, Burchett addressed what he called Congress' reluctance to release the crucial information about Epstein's infamous "Lolita Express." The plane was used by the billionaire pedophile to ferry young women between New York and Epstein's Palm Beach residence, as it emerged from the case against his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

During the trial in late 2021, Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr., a former pilot for Epstein who worked for the dead pedophile for 25 years, testified that he had flown Epstein "every four days" since he was hired in 1991.

Epstein, a financier who counted several high-profile friends in his entourage, including Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, was arrested on July 6, 2019 on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He was found dead in his cell about a month later in what was ruled an apparent suicide.

Several questions remained unanswered after his death, including the extent to which several politicians, celebrities and even royalty in his circles knew of his criminal activities.

A request from Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee to release the flight logs of the "Lolita Express" was "snubbed" by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Burchett told Newsmax on Monday.

Burchett said that's why he got personally involved in the efforts to release the flight logs. On December 11, the Tennessee representative sent a letter to House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer requesting he subpoena flight logs for Epstein's private plane.

"That's why I got involved with it. [Blackburn] can handle her own. But when the Democrat-controlled Senate did that, I went to Chairman [James] Comer in the Republican-controlled House, and I said we need to fix this. This is wrong," Burchett told Newsmax.

Newsweek contacted Burchett's Washington, D.C. office for comment by phone on Tuesday, but did not receive an immediate response.

"Too many of my colleagues I'm afraid are compromised in this area for whatever reason," he said. "Somebody whispered in their ear saying, 'Hey, you don't want something to come out on something else, you better keep your mouth shut on this. That's exactly what they've done."

"And it continues to go. Whether it's the honeypot the Russians used to use or something worse. I don't know, but ... you see that up and down the line. You see good conservatives vote for liberal policies and, frankly, you see some liberals occasionally will vote for something else," Burchett continued.

"So obviously, the Congress has been compromised and this continues on through the White House, through the Justice Department. The trash can is very deep. It's not a not a swamp, it's an open sewer."