Democrats Want JPMorgan and Other Banks to Testify Over Epstein Ties

Ten Democratic senators are calling on the Senate Banking Committee to hold hearings into the role that JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions may have played in enabling Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long sex trafficking operation.

The group, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, released a letter on Thursday to Senator Tim Scott, the committee chair, asking him to have Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, and employees from other banks that worked with Mr. Epstein testify before the committee.

“This testimony will help inform congressional efforts to ensure that our banking system has adequate safeguards against illicit activity,” the senators wrote in the letter.

Ms. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is the ranking member on the banking committee.

The request for a hearing comes after an article was published this week by The New York Times Magazine examining JPMorgan’s more than 10-year banking relationship with Mr. Epstein during a period when the disgraced financier was found to have sexually abused teenage girls. The report found that the bank had repeatedly disregarded red flags, including large cash withdrawals and other suspicious transactions, involving Mr. Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019, and his associates.

The letter to Mr. Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, noted that Deutsche Bank, which became Mr. Epstein’s main lender after JPMorgan severed ties with him in 2013, repeated many of the same errors.

“Testimony from JPMorgan and other institutions that processed Mr. Epstein’s transactions would provide valuable insight on where controls in the system failed,” the senators wrote. “The American people deserve to know what happened at JPMorgan and other banks that financed Mr. Epstein.”

Patricia Wexler, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan, said in a statement, “We now know in hindsight that any association with him was a mistake and we regret it.” She added, “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was engaged in an ongoing sex trafficking operation.”

Ms. Wexler said the bank fired Mr. Epstein as a client six years before his arrest on federal charges, and suggested the bank could have terminated the relationship earlier if the federal government had gone public with “damning information” obtained in the investigation that led to Mr. Epstein’s 2008 plea deal on state charges.

In recent weeks, a growing number of senators and members of the House of Representatives from both parties have called for greater transparency with regard to records the federal government has on Mr. Epstein.

On Wednesday, Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, introduced a bill aimed at compelling the Treasury Department to turn over copies of all suspicious activity reports filed by JPMorgan and other banks for thousands of transactions by Mr. Epstein, as well as dozens of his associates or business partners.

Also on Wednesday, Senate Republicans narrowly blocked an attempt by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files compiled by law enforcement agencies.