The federal government on Friday began to release files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a month after President Donald Trump ordered their release following a bipartisan push in Congress.
Journalists began digging into the files on Friday afternoon. Photos of Former President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson surfaced in the search, with Trump officials sharing the former.
It’s unclear what else the cache of files contain, and some pages are heavily redacted. More is sure to come.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier on Friday the government would release “several hundred thousand” of the Epstein files, but not the government’s entire collection as the administration works to redact certain names and stories.
Democrats expressed alarm over the Trump administration’s failure to meet the deadline set by Congress and suggested legal action would follow.
“The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself,” Reps. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, ranking members of House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, said Friday. “We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican who fell out of favor with the president partly due to her stance on Epstein transparency, wrote on X: “Release the files. It’s literally the law.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Johnson said in a statement that “the Trump Administration is the most transparent in history.”
“By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” she said.
The documents’ release follows administration initially hyping the files, only to pull back.
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi provided conservative influencers binders filled with Epstein-related documents and publicly teased the release of a list of Epstein associates who allegedly abused underage girls. Months later, the Department of Justice released an unsigned memo in July that said there was no “client list.”
The memo also affirmed that Epstein died by suicide while in federal custody in 2019 and said the department wouldn’t release any more materials related to Epstein.
The disclosure angered conservatives, many of whom felt the files would reveal the names of high-profile Epstein associates and expressed concern that the government sought to protect them — and Trump, whose name is among those listed in the files. The president has not been accused of wrongdoing, and Blanche said he wasn’t told to redact Trump’s name.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Trump allegedly wrote Epstein a bawdy note for the latter‘s 50th birthday party inside the caricature of a naked woman. Trump denied he wrote the alleged note and sued the Journal for $10 billion, though the House Oversight Committee eventually released the alleged letter after receiving it from Epstein’s estate.
Trump has repeatedly labeled the Epstein saga a “hoax,” but a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives managed to bring a bill to the floor last month demanding the government release the documents. Trump eventually reversed course on Nov. 16, urging House Republicans to let the bill pass to prove the party had “nothing to hide.” He signed the bill on Nov. 19.
In mid-November, the House Oversight Committee members released emails from the Epstein estate that revealed correspondence with political, business, and media figures. In one 2018 email, Epstein wrote that he knew “how dirty Donald is,” and in one the following year, that Trump “knew about the girls.”
More recently, House released photos obtained from the Epstein estate that feature a number of famous figures who have been associated with Epstein. Those depicted include Trump, Clinton, director Woody Allen, Bill Gates, former Harvard president Larry Summers and Steve Bannon.
More to come…
