US prosecutors see no more charges after final Epstein file dump
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Survivors of Epstein have said their alleged abusers “remain hidden and protected” despite the latest release of documents.
PHOTO: US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE/NYTIMES
WASHINGTON - A top US prosecutor signalled on Feb 1 that the authorities would not bring any more charges after the release of millions of new documents
“The review that we had done before concluded that there was no such information, and that’s where we remain for what we’ve seen and what we’ve released from the Epstein files,” Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche said on CNN’s State Of The Union show.
More than three million items made available online over the weekend included e-mails, photos, video clips, and mentions of numerous powerful figures such as US President Donald Trump, Mr Elon Musk, Mr Bill Gates and former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
“This review is over,” Mr Blanche added in an interview on ABC’s This Week, saying just a small number of documents were still being reviewed by a judge.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, is the only other person charged in connection with his crimes.
She was convicted of trafficking underage girls for Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence
Survivors of Epstein have said their alleged abusers “remain hidden and protected” despite the latest release of documents.
Mr Blanche, who previously served as Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, has dismissed suggestions that embarrassing material about the President was redacted, and Mr Trump suggested that the latest file dump cleared his name.
“I didn’t see it myself, but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping – you know, the radical left,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late on Jan 31.
Social circles
The explosive case has dogged Mr Trump, who moved in the same social circles as the disgraced financier in Florida and New York, with the President fighting for months to prevent the release of the vast trove of documents.
Mr Trump’s right-wing base has long been obsessed by the Epstein saga and the belief that the financier oversaw a sex trafficking ring for the world’s elite.
Mr Blanche has said he did not expect the “Epstein files” to quell public curiosity and conspiracy theories.
Mr Trump has given varying accounts of why he fell out with Epstein and has criticised the file dumps, saying that people who innocently met Epstein over the years risked having their reputations smeared.
The series of document dumps in recent months have shed light on Epstein’s ties to top business executives such as Microsoft’s Mr Gates, celebrities such as filmmaker Woody Allen, academics and politicians, including Mr Trump and former president Bill Clinton.
In a draft e-mail among the latest published documents, Epstein said Mr Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs, a claim the Gates Foundation denied in a statement to The New York Times.
Former prince Andrew, who was stripped of his royal titles
Epstein was convicted of soliciting an underage person for prostitution and died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls.
His death was ruled a suicide. AFP
