US deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said on Friday that the justice department is releasing more than 3 million pages of documents linked to its investigation into disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
At a tense news conference, Blanche said the release also includes more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. He said the material would have “extensive redactions”.
According to Blanche, the Trump administration has produced about 3.5 million pages to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He said the records include large amounts of commercial pornography and images “that were seized from Epstein’s devices”.
Millions more reviewed
Blanche said the department reviewed more than 6 million pages in total. “The department’s collection effort resulted in more than 6 million pages being identified as potentially responsive, including Department and FBI emails, interview summaries, images, videos and various other materials collected and generated during the various investigations and prosecutions that the act covered,” he said.
Some material has been withheld. Blanche said this includes personal and medical files, records related to death, physical abuse and injury, and any depiction of child pornography “that would jeopardize an active federal investigation”.
He added that the department will send a report to the House and Senate judiciary committees listing “all categories of records released and withheld”.
No new names confirmed
When asked whether the new release contains previously unknown names, Blanche said he had nothing to share.He said the documents again reflect what “President Trump has said for years …which is detailing his relationship, and lack thereof, with Mr Epstein, and what he thought about Mr Epstein.” Blanche also said all images of women were redacted, except for images of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate.
Background of the case
The release is expected to include material not seen before from the Epstein investigation. Epstein, a wealthy US financier, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
Earlier document releases have highlighted Epstein’s links to powerful business figures, celebrities, academics and politicians, including Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.
One of the most important disclosures so far has been two FBI emails from July 2019 that refer to 10 alleged “co-conspirators”. Only one person, Maxwell, has ever been charged in connection with Epstein’s crimes. The names of the other alleged co-conspirators remain redacted. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein. Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide.
Key files still missing
According to Axios, major documents have still not been released. These include a draft 60-count federal indictment of Epstein that was later dropped, and an 82-page prosecution memo from 2007. Trump and Clinton appear frequently in the records released so far, but officials have not accused either of wrongdoing. A Republican-led House panel has voted to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton after they refused to testify in its Epstein probe.
Trump, now 79, fought for months to block the release of the documents. He eventually signed the law after facing pressure from within his own party. The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the justice department to release all records by December 19. The department missed that deadline.
Blanche said the delay was due to the need to carefully redact the identities of more than 1,000 victims.The heavy redactions and the tight control over the release have fueled doubts that conspiracy theories about a high-level cover-up will end. After Trump’s name appeared in released files, the justice department said some documents “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump.”
The documents confirm that Trump once moved in the same social circles as Epstein in New York and Florida. Records also show that Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet multiple times. A January 2020 note from New York federal prosecutors said Trump made eight trips on Epstein’s plane between 1993 and 1996.
Trump has given different explanations over the years for why he later distanced himself from Epstein. He has criticized the document releases, warning that people who “innocently met” Epstein could see their reputations damaged.
A spokesperson for Clinton has called for the full release of all Epstein-related materials tied to the former president. “Someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection,” Angel Urena said.