Washington, D.C., US – The US Justice Department has begun releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents are expected to reveal further details on Epstein’s connections to powerful people, including politicians and business figures.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier in the day that several hundred thousand documents would be released on Friday.
How substantial is the new release?
The documents released on Friday are roughly 4,000 images in five data sets. That is a thin slice of the hundreds of thousands of files the Department of Justice has.
In a letter to Congress obtained by Associated Press, the Department of Justice acknowledged that the complete set of files was not released and that the government expects more disclosures by the end of the year.
Of the documents that were released, many were heavily redacted without explanation. For instance, over 100 images were entirely blacked out, without explanations. Dozens of other images showed staircases.
It is unclear how substantive the data sets are given the lack of context from the Department of Justice.
Several other images, including one that mentions Trump and his family’s name in an Epstein contact book, were already in the public arena.
Newly released photos show Trump, Clinton
Images released on Friday by the US Department of Justice include photos of former US President Bill Clinton, Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, Michael Jackson, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, as well as former Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew.
The photos often show the internationally recognised politicians and celebrities alongside women whose faces have been redacted.
A handful of photos also show current US President Donald Trump. The photos appear to have been in the public domain for decades, including two in which Trump and Epstein are posing with now-first lady Melania Trump.
Clinton spokesman Angel Urena said the Epstein investigation ‘isn’t about Bill Clinton’.
“There are two types of people here,” Urena said. “The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships after that. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”
Clinton has never been accused of misconduct by Epstein’s known victims.
The documents released on Friday do not provide any context regarding where or when the photos were taken and, on their own, are not proof or implication of any illegal activities by those pictured.
‘Incomplete’ with ‘too many redactions’
Ro Khanna, a Democratic Party congressman, said the Justice Department’s release of files tied to Jeffrey Epstein ‘does not comply’ with federal law.
“The Justice Department’s document dump this afternoon does not comply with Thomas Massie and my Epstein Transparency Act,” he said in a video statement.
“They released one document from a New York grand jury of a 119 pages totally blacked out! This despite a New York judge ordering them to release that document, and our law requires them to explain redactions. There’s not a single explanation for why that entire document was redacted,” he added.
“We have not seen the draft indictment that implicates other rich and powerful men who were on Epstein’s rape island, who either watched the abuse of young girls or participated in the abuse of young girls and sex trafficking,” Khanna said.
“It is an incomplete release, with too many redactions,” he said, adding that he and Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman who co-wrote the law demanding the release of the Epstein files, were ‘exploring all options’ to enforce the law’s stipulations and demand the full release of the files.
DW
