The US justice department has published millions of new documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, under a law passed in November that required the release of all Epstein-related records.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said at a press conference that Friday’s massive batch of files marked the end of the President Donald Trump administration’s planned releases under the law. The new cache includes more than three million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images.
The files include “extensive” redactions, he said, given the law’s exceptions permitting certain documents to be blacked out, including identifying information of victims or materials related to active investigations. Previous releases have been heavily redacted, drawing criticism from some members of Congress.
Reuters is in the process of reviewing the files.
Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s before they had a falling out years before Epstein’s first conviction, spent months resisting any release until both Democrats and Republicans in Congress forced his hand by advancing the law over his objections.
Trump has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and he has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
But the scandal has dogged him for months, in part because he promised to release the files during his 2024 presidential campaign.
It was not immediately clear how many of the newly released files included mentions of Trump. The first major release in December contained relatively few references to the president.
In a press release announcing Friday’s document production, the justice department wrote, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already”.
Blanche expressed frustration with accusations that the justice department had declined to pursue associates of Epstein who may have participated in illegal activity.
“There’s this built-in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about, that we’re covering up, or that we’re not we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case,” he said.
Blanche said the department has also withheld some files based on legal privilege, including work product and attorney-client privilege.
Some lawmakers have said those withholdings appear to run counter to the law, which required the department to produce internal communications related to decisions on whether to charge or investigate Epstein or any associates.
Epstein, a New York financier with ties to high-profile political and business figures, was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
While his death was ruled a suicide, it has engendered years of conspiracy theories, some of which Trump himself boosted to his own supporters during his 2024 presidential campaign.
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