Millions of files about Jeffrey Epstein have been released.
But one government agency is still holding back.
And a Trump official found one law that could declassify CIA Epstein files Congress won't touch.
How Jeffrey Epstein Moved Southern Air Transport CIA Airline to Les Wexner's Columbus Empire
Former Trump State Department official Mike Benz appeared on Piers Morgan's show after an interview with attorney David Boies about Epstein's criminal conduct.
Benz didn't waste time on the crimes themselves.
"That, to me, matters much less than the protection of it by institutions in our government, whether they be the Justice Department, the FBI, intelligence services, or oligarchs on the outside who want to hide their own relations," Benz said.
In 1993, Jeffrey Epstein personally negotiated moving Southern Air Transport from Miami to Columbus, Ohio.
Southern Air Transport wasn't just any airline.
It was a CIA proprietary airline – owned and operated by the CIA – that got caught trafficking guns and drugs during Iran-Contra.
Epstein moved that CIA airline directly to Columbus to service Les Wexner's retail empire, The Limited.
Wexner had given Epstein total financial control over his billion-dollar business through durable power of attorney.
How does a child sex trafficker get to personally negotiate relocating a CIA drug-running airline?
Southern Air Transport declared bankruptcy in Columbus the exact same day the CIA released a report acknowledging the airline's role in Iran-Contra gun and narcotics trafficking.
After that, the State Department gave Epstein a five-story Manhattan mansion – one of the largest residences in New York City – seized from the Iranian government.
Your tax dollars paid for Epstein's five-story Manhattan mansion.
CIA Won't Confirm or Deny Epstein Files Exist
Benz told Morgan what's missing from the 3.5 million pages released so far.
"We have zero information from the Central Intelligence Agency or the State Department," he said.
Congress voted overwhelmingly for the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Biden's Justice Department sat on these files for four years.
Trump signed the law in November 2025, and DOJ started releasing documents.
But the law only covers Justice Department records – nothing from CIA, NSA, or State Department.
The CIA uses one response to every records request about Epstein: "We can neither confirm nor deny."
In 2011, Epstein's lawyers asked the CIA for records showing an affiliation.
The agency said it couldn't locate information about "open affiliations" – but refused to confirm or deny classified connections.
The NSA denied a 2014 appeal seeking 14 years of documents.
JFK Records Act Forced Declassification of 5 Million CIA Pages in 1992
Benz compared the Justice Department stance to President George W. Bush standing on an aircraft carrier declaring "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.
"This is kind of what this feels like to say we've turned over everything. Mission accomplished. By the way, there's 3 million more files," he said.
Then he dropped the solution.
"In 1992 after the outpouring of anger that happened after Oliver Stone's JFK movie, there was a bill passed by Congress," Benz said. "It was called the John F Kennedy Records Collection Act that forced the CIA to turn over or to set up an independent auditing board to begin the process of reviewing and declassifying documents."
That law passed 427-1 in the House and 99-0 in the Senate.
The exact same margins as the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The JFK Act created an independent Assassination Records Review Board with power to override agency objections and force declassification.
Intelligence agencies declassified nearly 5 million pages they wanted buried forever.
National Security Archive senior analyst Peter Kornbluh called it the most successful declassification in history: "Without this law and its implementation over the last 27 years, these operational CIA files would likely have stayed Top Secret for eternity."
Trump proved the model works when he signed an executive order in January 2025 declassifying all remaining JFK records plus documents on Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations.
The National Archives released over 77,000 pages two months later.
Congress Could Pass Epstein Files Transparency Act for Intelligence Agencies
Benz laid out the political reality.
"So you can do the same mechanism here," he said. "If the Justice Department is saying there's 3 million we're not turning over. Pass another bill. Who's going to be on the other side of it?"
Nobody wants to be the one congressman defending CIA secrecy about a child sex trafficker.
"This one passed 427, to one in the house and 99 to zero in the Senate," Benz said. "Pass a bill and force them to be reviewed by an independent auditing board, and don't just make it DOJ FBI, extend it to the intelligence services, the same way that both chambers of Congress passed in 1992 around JFK."
Former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta cut Epstein's 2008 plea deal that let him serve 13 months in a county jail with work-release privileges.
When Trump's transition team vetted Acosta for Labor Secretary, he reportedly said he'd been told to back off Epstein because he "belonged to intelligence" and was "above his pay grade."
Epstein's connections to CIA operations date back to the 1970s with Iran, Middle Eastern, and Latin American operations.
He ran a company in 1981 called Intercontinental Assets Group that helped high-net-worth individuals and foreign governments move money offshore and recover assets from cryptic bank accounts.
CIA operatives need exactly that when Congress cuts off funding for covert operations.
Epstein had a fake Austrian passport recovered from his safe in 2019 listing his residence as Saudi Arabia – good enough to pass through four country checkpoints.
His main client at the time was Adnan Khashoggi, the CIA's arms dealer for Iran-Contra.
The question isn't whether CIA has Epstein file but what’s in those files will reveal about who knew a child predator was working for American intelligence – and let it happen anyway.
Senate Republicans killed a similar transparency bill for UFO records in 2023, even though it used the exact JFK Act model.
Will they do the same thing to protect CIA's Epstein secrets?
Or will Congress force the intelligence agencies that protected a child sex ring to come clean?
Sources:
- LifeZette News Staff, "Deep State Panic? Benz Demands Epstein Records Act, Copy-Paste the JFK Law and Burn the Swamp," LifeZette, February 19, 2026.
- "Mike Benz: Jeffrey Epstein Was Working With the CIA Since 1981," The Gateway Pundit, July 13, 2025.
- "President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992," Congress.gov.
- "CIA Covert Ops: Kennedy Assassination Records Lift Veil of Secrecy," National Security Archive, March 19, 2025.
- "Epstein Files Transparency Act," Wikipedia.
- "Nancy Mace demands CIA release reported Jeffrey Epstein documents," The Hill, February 18, 2026.
- "CIA, NSA denied records on Jeffrey Epstein, fueling intelligence ties speculation," Detroit News, February 8, 2026.
- "Southern Air Transport," Wikipedia.
