The initiators of the law to publish the investigation files in the sex offender case Jeffrey Epstein have accused the US Department of Justice of withholding information. The ministry gave On Friday only some of the documents were released, many of them heavily redacted. Actually, Congress had that US President Donald Trump’s government passes transparency law Committed to releasing almost all files in the Epstein case as of Friday – with the votes of Democrats and Republicans.
The opposition Democrats see this as a “breaking of the law” and a “cover-up” by the Trump administration. They are considering legal action. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on X that Ministry of Justice have published “only a fraction of the total evidence.” Every possibility will be exhausted to ensure that the truth comes to light. The whole thing was “nothing more than a cover-up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past,” he wrote.
Trump himself denies having close ties to Epstein, but photos and documents published so far suggest the opposite. The president had blocked the release of the files for months and described the Epstein affair as a “hoax.”
Criticism also comes from Republicans
Also the Democratic congressman Robert Garcia accused US President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi of a cover-up before. On We will work together with the Epstein victims to achieve the full release of the investigation files.
Khanna received support from Republican Thomas Massie, who initiated the legislative initiative together with the Democrat. Trump also faced headwind from other members of his own party, which had voted almost unanimously in Congress to release the files. Important ones Republican representatives like Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed disappointment with their own government’s actions. “My goodness, what’s in the Epstein files?” wrote Taylor Greene on X. “Release all the files, that’s literally the law.”
There have been loud calls in Trump’s MAGA camp for years for the files to be fully published. There is constant speculation about a list of Epstein’s influential “customers”. Trump’s Justice Secretary Pam Bondi initially promised the release of such a list, but then surprisingly denied its existence in the summer.
Actually everything should be published
As a result, Congress passed a transparency law with an overwhelming majority in the fall. The only exceptions to publication are documents relating to ongoing investigations or documents that could affect national security.
The first set of hundreds of thousands of documents released Friday includes an address book listing Trump and numerous other celebrities. Almost all of the information in it is blacked out; It is unclear who the book belonged to.
Many other documents were also made unrecognizable: According to the Ministry of Justice, a list of 254 “masseuses” was blacked out to “protect the victims”. The 119 pages of a court document were also completely blacked out – without explanation.
Justice Department justifies delay
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News that hundreds of thousands further files will only be published in the coming weeks. He justified the violation of the deadline with high requirements to protect the Epstein victims. The Justice Department is reviewing every single document and “ensuring that every person involved – their name, their identity, their history – is fully protected to the extent necessary,” he said.
Jeffrey Epstein is said to have led an abuse ring for many years in which he abused numerous girls and young women and passed them on to prominent people. He died in his prison cell at the age of 66; The autopsy report listed suicide as the cause of death. The financier maintained close contacts with the upper classes of society, which sparked much speculation about the extent of the scandal.
