For days, Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi had mentioned freeing the “Epstein recordsdata,” supposedly secret paperwork the government has on probably the most tough males who had been within the orbit of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
However the more or less 200 pages of documents that Ms. Bondi launched on Thursday contained little new data pointing to wrongdoing by means of any person other than Mr. Epstein, a registered intercourse wrongdoer who died in prison. The file sell off in large part consisted of flight logs for Mr. Epstein’s planes — way back made public — and get in touch with data for loads of work-mates, along side transient descriptions of things discovered at his apartments.
The discharge used to be billed as a gesture ushering in a brand new technology of transparency on the Justice Division. However the hyped first liberate of paperwork (which Ms. Bondi teased as “breaking information” in a Fox News appearance on Wednesday evening) seemed to be most commonly political theater. Its complicated daylong rollout even spun off a couple of new conspiracy theories amongst some Trump supporters, who view the Epstein investigation as a fountainhead for different conspiracies.
On Thursday afternoon, Ms. Bondi and Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I., presented a sneak preview of the paperwork to a number of conservative influencers, a few of whom emerged from the West Wing waving chunky white binders with the label “The Epstein Recordsdata: Section I.” One in every of them later referred to as it an “interesting souvenir.”
However by means of midafternoon, the Justice Division had now not posted the contents. And Ms. Bondi used to be drawing grievance on social media from those that had taken her at her phrase the evening prior to. The conservative persona Glenn Beck posted on X: “The Epstein recordsdata are a complete shaggy dog story,” and requested, “Who’s subverting POTUS?”
Ms. Bondi replied by means of promising extra paperwork to come back. Later, she mentioned {that a} “supply” within the F.B.I. box place of business in New York Town had advised her the bureau withheld “1000’s” of up to now unknown pages of Epstein-related paperwork and that she used to be made up our minds to get them, in keeping with a letter her spokesman supplied to journalists.
The paperwork had been launched overdue on Thursday, along side a remark from Mr. Patel that mentioned: “If there are gaps, we will be able to in finding them. If data had been hidden, we will be able to discover them.”
Nonetheless, some Republicans in Congress took to X to voice displeasure with the tips launched by means of Ms. Bondi.
“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and an entire unhappiness. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” wrote Consultant Anna Paulina Luna of Florida.
Mr. Epstein, a school dropout and self-proclaimed monetary whiz, killed himself in August 2019 — one month after his arrest on federal sex-trafficking fees.
Mr. Epstein is assumed to have sexually abused greater than 200 teenage ladies and younger girls over 3 many years. Throughout that point, he accrued a fortune price $600 million and befriended probably the most maximum tough and well-known folks on the earth.
Integrated within the paperwork, which have been in spite of everything posted on Thursday evening, used to be a completely redacted checklist of 254 folks described as masseuses.
Most of the boldface names related to Mr. Epstein first got here to mild in 2015 when Gawker published his so-called black e-book of names, numbers and addresses.
That checklist comprises the retail magnate Leslie Wexner, the personal fairness rich person Leon Black, the Microsoft co-founder Invoice Gates and the challenge capitalist Reid Hoffman. All of the ones males have mentioned they regretted their affiliation with Mr. Epstein.
It has additionally lengthy been recognized that President Trump, former President Invoice Clinton, Prince Andrew of Britain and celebrities together with Kevin Spacey and Naomi Campbell had been pleasant with Mr. Epstein at one time, and a few traveled on Mr. Epstein’s non-public planes, in keeping with up to now launched flight logs, trial testimony and courtroom filings.
Essentially the most notable flight log used to be a 118-page file produced throughout the felony trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, one among Mr. Epstein’s longtime pals and a former female friend. She was convicted in 2021 on fees that she aided Mr. Epstein in his sex-trafficking actions.
Whilst Justice Division leaders claimed the papers launched on Thursday had been “declassified,” none of them had classification markings — or declassification markings.
The file liberate on Thursday used to be a second that mentioned a lot in regards to the Trump management. The 2 maximum tough police officers within the nation, Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel, who’re answerable for overseeing necessary nationwide safety and felony investigations, selected to prioritize a long-concluded case to soothe conservative media and the obsessive core of Trump supporters who see the case as nefarious unfinished industry.
For years, conspiracy theorists have believed there’s grand plot by the government to hide now not simplest the reason for Mr. Epstein’s demise however the names of tough males who additionally abused probably the most sufferers, who integrated teenage women and girls.
On right-wing media platforms like Fox Information and Mr. Trump’s personal provider, Reality Social, there lengthy has been communicate of an “Epstein consumer checklist” that main points the names of guys for whom Mr. Epstein procured girls. However there hasn’t ever been a connection with any “consumer checklist” in any of the civil litigation introduced by means of sufferers.
Sooner than becoming a member of the Trump management, Ms. Bondi fueled a few of that hypothesis herself by means of talking in media interviews in regards to the executive’s refusal to liberate Epstein paperwork.
The F.B.I. additionally has refused to liberate some paperwork asked by means of attorneys for sufferers and the inside track media. In October, the F.B.I. rejected a Freedom of Data Act request filed by means of The New York Occasions in quest of a listing of all pieces seized by means of federal brokers after they searched Mr. Epstein’s apartments in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands after his July 2019 arrest.
The paperwork launched by means of Ms. Bondi would possibly come with partial descriptions of a few of the ones pieces seized by means of federal brokers. Below the heading “evidence list,” there are transient descriptions of things like “VHS tape,” “envelope containing 4 CDs” and “photograph depicting two ladies.”
Greater than two dozen of Mr. Epstein’s sufferers have joined a lawsuit charging the F.B.I. with mishandling previous investigations into his actions and ignoring lawsuits filed by means of sufferers.
Jordan Merson, whose regulation company is dealing with that lawsuit, mentioned that Ms. Bondi had taken a just right first step and that he was hoping this might “will result in her taking critically the ache of the sufferers” who had been suing the F.B.I.
Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.
