The US Department of Justice on Friday began releasing more than three million pages of files from the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, along with photos and videos, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced.
Blanche said the White House played no role in reviewing the extensive government record related to Epstein, an American financier who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking.
“They didn’t tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to censor, what not to censor,” Blanche said at a news conference.
Some of the documents contain “sensational and false claims” about President Donald Trump, submitted to the FBI (federal law enforcement) since before the 2020 presidential election, he added.
Blanche said earlier that all images of women were censored, except those of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s accomplice.
Previous posts have shed light on Epstein’s ties to prominent executives, celebrities, academics and politicians, including President Trump and former President Bill Clinton.
Blanche, who was previously Trump’s own personal lawyer, dismissed suggestions that potentially embarrassing material about the president had been redacted from the more than three million documents, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos released.
“We did not protect President Trump,” he said.
“We do not censor images of any man, unless it was impossible to censor the woman without also censoring the man,” explained the deputy prosecutor.
The most significant documents published to date
Perhaps the most significant documents released to date are two FBI emails from July 2019 that name 10 Epstein “co-conspirators.”
Only one person – Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Maxwell – has been charged in connection with his crimes, and the names of the alleged “co-conspirators” are blacked out in the emails.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting minors for Epstein, whose death was ruled a suicide.
Trump, a former close friend of Epstein, and Clinton appear prominently in the files released so far, but have not been charged with a crime.
A Republican-led House panel voted to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against Bill and Hillary Clinton for refusing to testify for their investigation into Epstein.
Trump, 79, fought for months to prevent the release of the massive file of documents on Epstein.
But a rebellion within his Republican Party forced him to pass a law requiring the release of all records.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) required that all documents held by the Department of Justice be released by December 19.
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