No Escaping Justice Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
The No Escaping Justice Act of 2026 requires the President, within 90 days and annually for five years, to identify foreign persons credibly determined to have knowingly participated in or supported severe trafficking, sexual exploitation of minors, financial benefit from that conduct, or intimidation and obstruction connected to the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking enterprise.
Credible information may come from government, intelligence, courts, foreign or international bodies, nongovernmental reporting, and Epstein-related records. Appearance of a name in those records is expressly insufficient by itself. Reports are generally unclassified, may include a classified annex, and must protect victim privacy and safety.
Every identified foreign person is subject to property blocking under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and is inadmissible to the United States. Existing visas or entry documents must be revoked. IEEPA penalties apply to people who violate, attempt, conspire to violate, or cause violations of the sanctions.
The President may waive sanctions for the national interest or an authorized intelligence, law-enforcement, or national-security activity after giving Congress 15 days' notice and justification. Entry restrictions yield as necessary to United Nations headquarters and other international obligations. Sanctions must end if the person was wrongly identified, completed an appropriate prosecution and sentence with victim remediation, or demonstrated changed behavior, substantial cooperation, and remediation. The President must create a termination-petition process and provide implementation briefings to designated committees on request.
Who Benefits and How
Trafficking victims, survivors of childhood sexual exploitation, witnesses, and investigators gain a mandatory sanctions framework aimed at foreign facilitators, financial beneficiaries, and obstructors. Congressional committees receive recurring reports and requested briefings. Victim-privacy protections reduce the risk that public reports expose or endanger survivors. Law-enforcement agencies may gain cooperation through the termination pathway.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Foreign persons identified under the credible-information standard lose access to United States property and entry. United States financial institutions and other persons controlling blocked property must comply with sanctions. State Department visa staff, border-admission officers, Treasury sanctions staff, Justice Department investigators, and presidential reporting staff must implement the program. Sanctioned persons seeking removal must use the petition and review process.
Key Provisions
- Defines covered foreign persons, records, knowledge, trafficking, and committees.
- Requires annual identification reports for five years.
- Protects victim privacy in unclassified reports.
- Provides that a name appearing in Epstein-related records is not enough by itself.
- Requires blocking of covered property and transactions.
- Prohibits admission and requires visa revocation.
- Authorizes waivers for national-interest and specified government activities.
- Requires termination when statutory remediation or error conditions are met.
- Creates a petition process for sanctions termination.
- Requires classified or unclassified implementation briefings on request.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires identification and mandatory property and visa sanctions for foreign persons credibly determined to have knowingly participated in, profited from, facilitated, or obstructed accountability for the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking enterprise, with waiver, termination, petition, and oversight procedures.
Key Policy Areas
Human Trafficking, Foreign Sanctions, Visa Restrictions, Victim Protection, Congressional Oversight
Primary Purpose
Requires identification and mandatory property and visa sanctions for foreign persons credibly determined to have knowingly participated in, profited from, facilitated, or obstructed accountability for the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking enterprise, with waiver, termination, petition, and oversight procedures.
Policy Domains
Section 5 waiver and termination pathways
Identified Gains
- Sanctioned persons who were wrongly identified
- Sanctioned persons completing qualifying remediation
- Sanctioned persons providing substantial cooperation
- Authorized United States intelligence activities
- Authorized United States law-enforcement activities
- Victims receiving verifiable remediation
Identified Costs
- Presidential sanctions-waiver staff
- Federal sanctions-petition reviewers
- Congressional sanctions-notification staff
- Sanctioned persons submitting termination petitions
- Victim-remediation verification staff
Section 6 congressional implementation briefing
Identified Gains
- Congressional appropriations committees
- Congressional foreign-affairs committees
- Congressional judiciary committees
Identified Costs
- Federal department heads providing briefings
- Federal sanctions-briefing staff
- Classified-information security staff
Section 3 annual identification reports
Identified Gains
- Trafficking victims connected to the enterprise
- Survivors of childhood sexual exploitation
- Witnesses facing intimidation
- Law-enforcement officers facing obstruction
- Congressional sanctions oversight committees
Identified Costs
- Foreign persons reviewed for sanctionable conduct
- Presidential identification-report staff
- State Department trafficking analysts
- Treasury sanctions analysts
- Justice Department trafficking investigators
- Victim-privacy review staff
Section 2 sanctions definitions
Identified Gains
- Trafficking victims covered by the sanctions framework
- Congressional committees receiving reports
- Federal investigators using Epstein-related records
- United States persons applying sanctions rules
Identified Costs
- Foreign persons reviewed under the knowledge standard
- State Department records staff
- Justice Department records staff
- Congressional committee intake staff
Section 4 mandatory property and entry sanctions
Identified Gains
- Trafficking victims seeking foreign-person accountability
- Survivors seeking financial isolation of facilitators
- Federal human-trafficking enforcement programs
- United States border-security programs
Identified Costs
- Foreign persons identified for mandatory sanctions
- United States banks holding blocked property
- United States persons controlling blocked property
- State Department visa-revocation staff
- Border-admission officers
- Treasury sanctions administrators
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition …
Introduced in House
Ms. Wasserman Schultz introduced the following bill; which was referred …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Authorized United States intelligence activities, Authorized United States law-enforcement activities, Border-admission officers
Positive-direction: Authorized United States intelligence activities, Authorized United States law-enforcement activities, Congressional appropriations committees, Congressional foreign-affairs committees, Congressional judiciary committees, Congressional sanctions oversight committees, Federal human-trafficking enforcement programs, United States border-security programs
Negative-direction: Border-admission officers, Classified-information security staff, Federal department heads providing briefings, Federal sanctions-briefing staff, Federal sanctions-petition reviewers, Justice Department trafficking investigators, Presidential identification-report staff, Presidential sanctions-waiver staff, State Department trafficking analysts, State Department visa-revocation staff, Treasury sanctions administrators, Victim-privacy review staff
Law-enforcement officers facing obstruction, Survivors of childhood sexual exploitation, Trafficking victims connected to the enterprise
Foreign persons identified for mandatory sanctions, Foreign persons reviewed for sanctionable conduct, Sanctioned persons completing qualifying remediation
Positive-direction: Sanctioned persons completing qualifying remediation, Sanctioned persons providing substantial cooperation, Sanctioned persons who were wrongly identified
Negative-direction: Foreign persons identified for mandatory sanctions, Foreign persons reviewed for sanctionable conduct
United States banks holding blocked property, United States persons controlling blocked property
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "committee"
- → Appropriate House or Senate committee
- "us_person"
- → Covered citizen, permanent resident, or United States entity
- "foreign_person"
- → Person who is not a United States person
- "victim"
- → Trafficking victim protected in public reporting
- "subject"
- → Foreign person reviewed under credible information
- "consultant"
- → State, Treasury, or Justice official
- "decision_maker"
- → President
- "visa_official"
- → State Department official revoking entry documentation
- "property_holder"
- → United States person controlling covered property
- "sanctioned_person"
- → Foreign person identified in the annual report
- "sanctions_official"
- → Treasury official administering property blocking
- "victim"
- → Person receiving remediation
- "reviewer"
- → Federal sanctions-review staff
- "petitioner"
- → Sanctioned foreign person seeking termination
- "waiver_official"
- → President
- "briefer"
- → Head of an applicable federal department or agency
- "requester"
- → Appropriate congressional committee
Note: {'scope_ids': ['trafficking_property_visa_sanctions', 'trafficking_sanctions_relief'], 'description': 'Sanctions are mandatory for identified persons, but later provisions authorize limited waivers, international-obligation exceptions, and mandatory termination upon specified findings.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Actual knowledge or circumstances in which a person should have known of the conduct, circumstance, or result.
A person that is not a United States person as defined by citizenship, permanent residence, or entity organization.
Reliable information from listed official, judicial, international, nongovernmental, or record sources; a name's appearance in Epstein-related records alone is insufficient.
Specified State and Justice Department records, including FBI and United States Attorney materials, related to the Epstein Files Transparency Act categories.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
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