end of list<\/span><\/section>\nEarlier in the day, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche warned that some documents would be delayed, in order to ensure the privacy of Epstein\u2019s sex-trafficking victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that we\u2019re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,\u201d Blanche told Fox News.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo today, several hundred thousand, and then, over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.\u201d<\/p>\n
That announcement, however, has spurred outrage \u2014 and the possibility of a backlash from the US Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is disappointing that they haven\u2019t been able to release these documents on time in compliance with the law,\u201d Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s clear they\u2019re trying at the very least to meet the deadline, they should have been able to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congress had set a 30-day deadline for the release of the full investigative file when it passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19.<\/p>\n
The law required the Justice Department to \u201cmake publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials\u201d in its possession.<\/p>\n
That includes records obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as internal communications about decisions to charge \u2014 or not charge \u2014 the late financier.<\/p>\n
The law\u2019s purview also extends to materials in the government\u2019s possession related to Epstein\u2019s co-defendant and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and documents about entities with \u201cknown or alleged ties\u201d to Epstein.<\/p>\n
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, did contain some exemptions. It allowed the government to redact information that might be used in ongoing investigations or that might identify victims. Explicit material was also allowed to be concealed.<\/p>\n
Still, Khanna said Justice Department leaders owed the public \u201c\u200aa clear timeline of when the rest of the documents will be released and an explanation for why they did not release all of them today\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also criticised Friday\u2019s release for containing \u201c\u200avery heavy redactions\u201d, even for material that should have already been publicly available from grand jury materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey owe the Congress and the American public an explanation for every redaction that I didn\u2019t see published on the DOJ page,\u201d Khanna told reporters. \u201cThe law is very clear that any redaction has to be justified in writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frustrations with Friday\u2019s release<\/h2>\n
Friday\u2019s release on the Justice Department website included a search bar that promised the \u201cfull Epstein library\u201d.<\/p>\n
But on social media, users complained that there was a queue to enter the Justice Department\u2019s site and that the search tool failed to return results for basic terms related to the case.<\/p>\n
Viewers also pointed out that many of the newly released materials included pages that were largely blacked out.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI was encouraged initially when Todd Blanche said that we were going to have hundreds of thousands of documents released,\u201d Khanna himself said. \u201cSo far, I have not seen much new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky were among the sponsors for the Epstein Files Transparency Act.<\/p>\n
He warned that members of the Trump administration could face consequences if they fail to release the full Epstein file.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas Massie and I will continue to explore all options to fight to make sure that they comply with the law, whether that is holding people in inherent contempt, recommending people for prosecution, recommending impeachment or private lawsuits,\u201d Khanna said.<\/p>\n
The official account for the Democratic Party, meanwhile, underscored Blanche\u2019s comments that Friday\u2019s release would be partial.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s DOJ will not comply with today\u2019s release deadline for the Epstein files,\u201d the party wrote. \u201cAll files were required by law to be released today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even some Republicans appeared to express frustration with the limited scope of Friday\u2019s file drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelease all the files,\u201d Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on social media in the hours after Blanche\u2019s interview. \u201cIt\u2019s literally the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to Friday\u2019s release, Massie himself posted a 14-minute video on social media instructing the public about how to evaluate Friday\u2019s file release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victims\u2019 lawyers have been in contact with me, and collectively they know that there are at least 20 names of men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI. These would reside in the FD-302 forms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FBI fills out these forms to summarise or memorialise what a witness gave them as far as testimony when they interviewed with the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if we get a large production on December 19, and it does not contain a single name of any male who\u2019s accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven\u2019t produced all the documents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Honouring survivors\u2019 requests<\/h2>\n
Survivors of Epstein\u2019s abuses have long petitioned for the US government to release its full file on the late financier, who died in 2019 while in a New York City jail, awaiting federal trial.<\/p>\n
Previously, in 2008, he had been found guilty on solicitation and child prostitution charges after reaching a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Florida, but critics slammed that deal as a lightweight sentence that failed to hold Epstein accountable for the magnitude of his crimes.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of women have stepped forward in recent years to testify to sexual abuse and misconduct at Epstein\u2019s hands. Many say they were minors at the time of the abuse.<\/p>\n
Public scrutiny has long swirled around the case, given Epstein\u2019s wealth and prominent connections. He was known to socialise with figures including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, scholar Noam Chomsky and political figures like Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly a prince in the United Kingdom, had his royal titles and privileges stripped as a result of his association with Epstein and the sexual abuse allegations against him.<\/p>\n
In the US, the case has proven to be a lingering black eye for the Trump White House, which has publicly touted itself as the \u201cmost transparent administration in history\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d base was strongly associated with Epstein-related conspiracy theories, including that the late financier kept a \u201cclient list\u201d to coerce the rich and powerful.<\/p>\n
But despite a public statement in February that the list was on her desk, Trump\u2019s Attorney General Pam Bondi later issued a memo in July, alongside FBI director Kash Patel, saying that the government had no such document.<\/p>\n
That fuelled public outcry against the Trump administration, reigniting rumours and scrutiny about the president\u2019s own relationship with Epstein.<\/p>\n
Trump has long denied being friends with Epstein, despite photos and documents that suggest a certain intimacy.<\/p>\n
In July, Trump told reporters that he and Epstein had a falling-out after the financier allegedly poached employees from the Mar-a-Lago spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Listen, we don\u2019t want you taking our people,’\u201d Trump explained. \u201cAnd then, not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, \u2018Outta here.’\u201d<\/p>\n
In a recent article with the magazine Vanity Fair, Trump\u2019s chief of staff Susie Wiles acknowledged Trump was in the Epstein files, but she denied he was involved in any wrongdoing: \u201cHe\u2019s not in the file doing anything awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s a passe word, but [they were] sort of young, single playboys together,\u201d Wiles told the publication.<\/p>\n
Trump has often gone on the offensive against critics who sought to tie him to the Epstein files, calling members of his own base \u201cstupid\u201d for fixating on the file.<\/p>\n
But in November, he reversed course and urged Republicans to vote for the Epstein Files Transparency Act. It passed with bipartisan support, with a vote of 427 to one in the House of Representatives and unanimous approval in the Senate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States Department of Justice has begun to release part of its trove of files documenting the life and crimes of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But Friday\u2019s much-anticipated release is expected to fall short of the full publication of the Epstein file mandated under a recently passed law. Recommended Stories list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}