US Justice Department releasing new batch of Epstein files

WASHINGTON - The US Justice Department announced on Jan 30 it was releasing more than three million pages from the Jeffrey Epstein files along with photos and videos, adding fuel to a political drama putting pressure on President Donald Trump.

Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche said all images of women were redacted from the documents being released aside from those of Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of the convicted sex offender.

The latest release is expected to contain previously unseen material from the investigation into Epstein, a wealthy US financier who

died in a New York jail in 2019

while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.

Previous file releases

have shed light on Epstein’s ties to leading business executives, celebrities, academics and politicians, including Mr Trump and former president Bill Clinton.

Perhaps the most significant documents published so far are two FBI emails from July 2019 which mention 10 “co-conspirators” of Epstein.

Only one person – Epstein’s former girlfriend Maxwell – has ever been charged in connection with his crimes and the names of the alleged “co-conspirators” are redacted from the emails.

Maxwell is

serving a 20-year prison sentence

for recruiting underage girls for Epstein, whose death was ruled a suicide.

According to Axios, major documents which have not been released yet include a draft 60-count federal indictment of Epstein that was inexplicably quashed, and an 82-page prosecution memo from 2007.

Mr Trump, a one-time close friend of Epstein, and Clinton both figure prominently in the records published so far but neither has been accused by officials of any wrongdoing.

A Republican-led House panel has voted to launch contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton over their refusal to testify before its probe into Epstein.

Mr Trump, 79, fought for months to prevent release of the vast trove of documents about Epstein.

But a rebellion inside his Republican Party forced him to sign off on a law mandating release of all the documents.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) called for all of the documents held by the Justice Department to be released by Dec 19.

‘Sensationalist’

The department missed that deadline. Mr Blanche has blamed the delay on the need to painstakingly redact the identities of Epstein’s more than 1,000 victims from the files.

The sweeping redactions across many of the documents – combined with tight control over the release by the Trump administration – have stoked scepticism that conspiracy theories of a high-level cover-up will be silenced.

As soon as the president’s name began surfacing in the released files, the Justice Department issued a statement saying that some documents “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump.”

But the documents already released confirm that Mr Trump was once close to Epstein.

They moved in the same social circles in New York and Florida and documents confirm that Mr Trump flew multiple times on Epstein’s private jet.

A January 2020 note from New York federal prosecutors who were investigating Maxwell had Mr Trump making

eight trips on Epstein’s plane

between 1993 and 1996.

Mr Trump has given varying accounts of why he eventually fell out with Epstein. He has criticised the file dumps, expressing concern that people who “innocently met” Epstein over the years risked having their reputations smeared.

A spokesman for Mr Clinton has urged the Justice Department to release all materials in the files related to the former president, saying he had nothing to hide.

“Someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection,” Mr Angel Urena said. AFP