Senate Democrats Plan Epstein Probe of JPMorgan When They Take Control in January, Source Says

The first concrete target of the Democrats' promised oversight blitz in the Senate, after they won control of Congress on Nov. 3, is a Wall Street bank, not the White House.

Senate Democrats are preparing to investigate JPMorgan Chase's banking relationship with Jeffrey Epstein once they take control of Congress early next year, according to a source familiar with the Finance Committee's thinking. The source spoke to CNBC on Thursday, Nov. 5, on condition of anonymity because the probe has not been announced.

What the Finance Committee staff reportedly want

Democratic staffers on the committee intend to focus on how high-ranking JPMorgan executives dealt with Epstein, the source said. They aim to home in on decisions made by Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of the bank's asset and wealth management division.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the committee's ranking Democrat, is likely to take the gavel in January. He has made clear he plans to make full use of the subpoena powers that committee majorities wield, according to the same account. In a statement Wednesday, Wyden listed banks that he contends ignored red flags about Epstein's financial dealings among his "accountability" targets, saying: "When I am chair, they will be forced to answer to the Senate Finance Committee for their role in hurting the American people and enabling Trump's corruption."

No investigation has been formally announced. JPMorgan declined to comment, and a representative for Wyden did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The record Erdoes would be asked about

Epstein was a JPMorgan client from 1998. He pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to a state charge of procuring an underage girl for prostitution and became a registered sex offender.

In a 2023 deposition, Erdoes said she knew as early as 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls brought to his home. Jamie Dimon, the bank's CEO, said in his own, later 2023 deposition that Erdoes had the authority to cut Epstein off as a client. She did not take that step until 2013.

In 2023, a lawyer for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mimi Liu, told a federal judge in New York that JPMorgan "was a full-service bank for Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking." She also said the bank waited until after Epstein's death to notify the Treasury Department of $1 billion in suspicious transactions. Those are the allegations of a party to that litigation.

JPMorgan agreed to a $290 million settlement with Epstein's victims in mid-2023 without admitting wrongdoing. That same year it agreed to pay $75 million to settle a separate lawsuit by the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In August, Wyden released a report accusing top officials at multiple banks of "looking the other way" as Epstein moved hundreds of millions of dollars to finance a yearslong sex trafficking operation.

JPMorgan's position, and the Staley dispute

The bank rejects the idea that it facilitated Epstein's crimes. "The US government had damning information about Epstein's crimes that it failed to share with us or other banks," a JPMorgan spokesperson said. "We regret any association we had with him, but we did not help him commit his crimes."

JPMorgan has also pointed at one of its own former executives. The bank has blamed Jes Staley, its former investment banking chief, for concealing or failing to report criminal activity tied to Epstein, with whom he had a close relationship. Staley left JPMorgan in 2013, later became CEO of Barclays before stepping down in 2021, and has denied knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

House Oversight Chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said after a closed-door interview with Staley in July that Staley had encouraged JPMorgan to keep Epstein as a client. That is Comer's characterization.

Part of a much larger oversight agenda

The JPMorgan plan sits inside a broad promise of investigations from the new majority. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, poised to return as majority leader, said, "Americans want us to clean up corruption in government." He added that no American "should have to make tradeoffs at the supermarket while Trump is making inside trades on the stock market."

On the House side, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, set to chair the Oversight Committee, answered the election with two words on X: "Lawyer up." His stated priorities include Trump family business dealings, ICE and DHS operations, and the administration's handling of the Epstein files. Epstein was once a friend of Trump, as he was of Bill Clinton and many other prominent figures. The president has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, expected to chair the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has said it will look into Trump's real estate projects around the nation's capital and his crypto dealings. A key Democratic Senate aide said last week that Senate Democrats plan investigations into an array of issues, ranging from private equity's impact on living costs to data center taxation and fears about AI.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, in line to become speaker, has not ruled out a third impeachment of Trump.

The administration is already pushing back. James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security's general counsel, wrote on X that Democrats are "more interested in political shenanigans than in governing" and that the department is "well prepared to deal with this nonsense." A White House spokeswoman told The Epoch Times that Trump is "willing to work with anyone to continue delivering victories for hardworking Americans." The White House has long denied wrongdoing in response to the self-enrichment allegations.

What comes next

The new Democratic majority will be fully seated in January, and committee majorities will not wield subpoena power until then. Whether Wyden's committee actually issues subpoenas to JPMorgan or to Erdoes is not yet known.