Release
The Justice Department (DoJ) released another trove of Epstein files but missed its December 19 deadline to fully do so.
Context
On November 20, President Trump signed a law – passed unanimously in the Senate and 427-1 in the House – ordering the DoJ to release all Epstein-related files within 30 days (by Friday, December 19).
That evening, the administration released a batch of files, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying, “I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today several hundred thousand and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more…There’s a lot of eyes looking at these and we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials we are producing, that we are protecting every single victim.”
Contents
The files revealed little new information.
They included dozens of photos – released without context or captions – of Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell beside celebrities, including Michael Jackson, the magician David Copperfield, the late news host Walter Cronkite, actor Kevin Spacey, and comedian Chris Tucker. It had already been established that many of these celebrities had spent time with Epstein. Other photos showed Bill Clinton in a hot tub with Ghislaine Maxwell, at a dinner, and in a swimming pool.
