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By Suzanne Blake
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) released long-awaited files on Friday related to Jeffrey Epstein, hours before a deadline set by a law signed by President Donald Trump last month, but with major redactions that have sparked outrage online.
Why It Matters
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have accused Trump and the DOJ of "violating federal law" after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged it would not release all its files on the convicted sex offender by Friday's deadline. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed through both chambers and then signed by Trump in November, requires the government to make the documents, with some exceptions including personal information, be available by December 19.
Read More on Politics
While the Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed, the president called on Republicans to block it before changing his tune and encouraging the GOP to put the law into effect.
The release of the files comes after information about Epstein and his ties to Trump came out last month after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released some Epstein emails. Trump has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and has said he ended their relationship years before Epstein's death in 2019. Epstein died in jail by suicide while he was awaiting trial for federal charges of sex trafficking minors. Several of the president's allies have called the Democrats' move a "smear" campaign against him.
Meanwhile, many conspiracy theories have emerged surrounding the case due to the disgraced financer's prior connections to many powerful and elite American figures.
What To Know
The DOJ posted photographs, documents, and logs in an “Epstein Library” on its website on Friday at around 4 p.m. ET.
The files include court documents, photographs, grand jury testimony and interview transcripts, including those related to his longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, according to the Associated Press. The files include video clips from inside Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Epstein was held, on the day of his death.
Since the release of some of the files on Friday, people have posted their outrage on X, specifically regarding the fact that so many pages are nearly completely redacted.
Singer-songwriter/musician Bill Madden wrote on X: "As expected, the criminal authoritarian Trump regime, with help from AG Pam Bondi, is refusing to release the entire Epstein files. We are witnessing the greatest coverup in presidential history, far surpassing Watergate. Bondi is protecting the pedophile president at all costs."
X account @WarMonitors, which has 1.2 million followers, posted: “There are genuinely thousands upon thousands of court documents and letters relating to this. Some as redacted...It's gonna be a long night…”
Content creator @AshleyDCan posted with a screenshot of a redacted file: "I can’t believe they released the Epstein files like this and expect us to be ok with it.”
X account @TheWickedSource, which has over 108,000 followers, posted a screenshot of the released files, with nearly entire pages blocked out and wrote: “First look at the newly released Epstein files…exactly how we expected them to look.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was tasked with overseeing the disclosure.
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What People Are Saying
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox & Friends on Friday: "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."
Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, and Judiciary Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said in a joint statement on X on Friday: “Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring. For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said on Friday: "By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have."
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, said in an X post on Friday: “The law was clear. They had 30 days to comply and release the Epstein Files. They are blatantly breaking the law to cover up for pedophiles.”
**Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, who has repeatedly pushed for the files to be released said in an X post Friday morning: "**Time’s up. Release the files."
What Happens Next
The DOJ is expected to release more documents over the next several weeks.
“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,” Blanche said on Fox & Friends on Friday.
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