On December 19, the Department of Justice released a batch of files relating to the late pedophile and friend of Trump, Jeffrey Epstein.
However, the release of these files lacked transparency. 119 pages of a New York grand jury testimony was redacted; this grand jury testimony included some of the most sought-after information, according to Congressman Ro Khanna, who spearheaded the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act despite fierce opposition from Trump, who eventually caved. Khanna also noted that a draft indictment regarding the first Epstein case, which implicated the elites that associated with Epstein, was not released.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated to Fox “News” that he expected “several hundred thousand” pages to be released on this date, with hundreds of thousands more to come. Khanna demanded Blanche to explain where the missing files are.
This release appears to have been influenced by partisan politics, with images of former President Bill Clinton appearing with Epstein being a prominent feature. On November 14, Attorney General Pam Bondi admitted that she would target Trump’s political opposition as they allegedly related to Epstein. This is consistent with Trump’s attempt to re-engineer the narrative surrounding Epstein and his crimes to be one in which the Democrats are attempting a cover-up. In reality, Trump opposed the release of the Epstein Files Transparency Act until it became politically impossible to do so as Congressional Republicans began to defy him, and tried to pressure Congresswoman Lauren Boebert into voting against it; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) scrambled to redact thousands of Epstein files, and the White House held a meeting between Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Vice President JD Vance about the Epstein files, which Vance denied had ever taken place.
While Trump came up in this new tranche, it was done so to paint a narrative in which Epstein and Trump were distant. For instance, the emails between journalist Michael Wolff and Epstein revolve around the use of leverage over Trump.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
NPR — Michael Wolff to Jeffrey Epstein
A 2017 email featured Epstein declaring to Larry Summers that Trump has “not one decent cell in his body.” Yet, this did not stop the two from being close friends, as evidenced by Trump’s contribution to Epstein’s birthday book, Epstein’s intimate and deep knowledge of Trump’s behavior and psyche (he portrayed himself as a kind of Trump whisperer to those seeking advice on dealing with Trump), and the closeness of that relationship which endured for years.
This tranche of files included information that was already known, and likely redacted to an excessive extent. Redactions are only intended to protect the victims of Epstein and fellow trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as to conceal information related to ongoing investigations.
