Thousands of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case were released by the Department of Justice Friday, partially meeting the legally mandated deadline following a months-long pressure campaign.
Among the trove of documents were pictures of former President Bill Clinton lounging in a hot tub, the late entertainer Michael Jackson and other high-profile individuals who knew Epstein years before he was indicted on federal charges.
Being photographed with Epstein does not implicate a person in the late convicted pedophile’s crimes.
Epstein, who died in 2019 while in federal jail, was a wealthy financier with ties to high-profile individuals. He was accused of sexually abusing and trafficking women and girls for years, alongside his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Around 4 p.m. ET, the Justice Department posted thousands of documents to its website. It appeared so many people were trying to access the documents at the same time, the site required users to wait in a queue for access.
Hours before the deadline, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said they would make only “several hundred thousand” pages available and release the rest over the coming weeks to ensure redactions properly protect survivors.
Democrats accused administration officials of engaging in a cover-up and violating federal law.
Both parties bash Trump for ‘moving the goalpost’ and initially releasing only some Epstein files by deadline
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News earlier Friday that it would take a “couple of weeks” to release everything the Justice Department must produce. Federal law states all the files must be released by Friday.
“I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.
Rachel Dobkin has more.
Bill Clinton appears in multiple photos in Epstein files
Former President Bill Clinton appears in several photos released by the Justice Department Friday.
Clinton was friends with Epstein at one point but the former president has said he had no involvement with Epstein’s crimes.
Being photographed with Epstein, or appearing in the Epstein files does not mean they participated in Epstein’s crimes or knew of them.
Photos released show Epstein’s home
Redacted photos contain explicit images of women
Redacted images in the trove of the government’s collection appear to be photographs of women posing without clothes on – either with other people or alone.
Some of the images show nude, or nearly nude women, performing massages.
During Maxwell’s federal child sex trafficking trial, prosecutors said Epstein took young women to his private island for vacations, where he would force them to give him massages.
Redacted evidence photos show Epstein posing with women
Parts of the released documents include photos the government seized during its investigation that show Jeffrey Epstein posing with what appear to be young women around his property.
The women’s faces are redacted.
A person being photographed with Epstein does not mean they were involved with or knew of Epstein’s crimes.
Photo shows former President Bill Clinton painted wearing a dress
Video of Epstein’s jail cell included
Some of the documents are multimedia pieces the public has seen before – such as the video of Epstein’s jail cell that was released by the DoJ earlier this year.
The Justice Department also released transcripts of its interview with Ghislaine Maxwell earlier this year – something that is also already publicly available.
Files contain redacted photos and documents
The giant trove of documents released contains a vast number of redacted documents and photos that were collected to be used during Epstein’s trial and used in Maxwell’s trial.
Datasets posted online contain pages and pages of scanned documents that are heavily redacted, including flight logs, and interview transcripts.
What is the DoJ allowed to redact from documents?
The Epstein Files Transparency Act directed the Justice Department to release everything it has — which could include recently unsealed grand jury documents and previously unreleased interviews — unless they “jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary.”
The measure also requires the release of documents related to Epstein’s death behind bars.
Attorney General Pam Bondi can redact or withhold documents that include “personally identifiable information” or medical files relating to victims, as well as any content that depicts child sexual abuse, according to the legislation.
Source: independent.co.uk