The US justice department released a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday local time.
The release follows months of political wrangling and rebellion by some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters over his administration’s reluctance to make public all records tied to probes into Epstein.
Reuters is reviewing the latest documents.
Trump had initially urged fellow Republicans in Congress to oppose the new law, warning that releasing potentially sensitive internal investigative records could set a dangerous precedent.
But many Trump voters accused his administration of covering up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscuring details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
Trump, who promised on the 2024 election campaign trail to declassify the government’s Epstein files if elected, has been seeking to move beyond the affair so that he can concentrate on a more pressing concern for Americans — the cost of living — ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections.
Just 44 per cent of American adults who identify as Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein issue, compared to his 82 per cent overall approval rating among the group, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Epstein’s ties to Trump have been in the spotlight since Democrats in the House of Representatives last month released thousands of emails, including one in which Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls” without clarifying what that meant.
