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Justice Department Faces Friday deadline to release his files Jeffrey EpsteinA convicted sex offender and wealthy financier, known for his connections to some of the world’s most influential people, including donald trumpWho had tried to keep the files sealed as President.
The Justice Department has not said when during the day it plans to make the records public. Although the total quantity of Deputy Attorney General is also not clear todd blanche In an interview with Fox News Channel he said he expected the department to release “several million” records on Friday and then several million more in the coming weeks.
The records may include the most detailed account yet of the government’s nearly two-decade investigation into Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.
His release has long been demanded as the public wants to know whether any of Epstein’s wealthy and powerful associates knew about — or participated in — the abuse. Epstein’s accusers have also long sought answers as to why federal authorities closed their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.
Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump signed a bill on November 19 giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into Epstein’s death in federal prison.
Passage of the legislation was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.
what the law allows
The law allows for redactions regarding victims or ongoing investigations, but makes clear that no records will be withheld or redacted due to “embarrassment, harm to reputation, or political sensitivity.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on November 14 that she had ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein’s ties to Trump’s political enemies, including former President Bill Clinton. Bondy took action after Trump pressed for such an investigation, although he did not specify which crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of Epstein’s victims have accused any of the people Trump mentioned in his social media post calling for an investigation of sexual misconduct.
In July, Trump dismissed some of his supporters as “weak” for falling for the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax.” But both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., failed to stop the legislation from coming to a vote.
Once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable, Trump made a U-turn on the files. He stressed that the Epstein case has become a distraction to the Republican agenda and that releasing the records is the best way forward.
Epstein investigation
Police in Palm Beach, Florida began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. The FBI joined the investigation, and authorities collected testimony from several underage girls who said they were hired to provide sexual massages to Epstein.
Ultimately, however, prosecutors gave Epstein a deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to a charge of prostitution involving a person under the age of 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Epstein’s accusers then spent years in civil litigation trying to get that plea agreement overturned. One of those women, virginia giuffreaccused Epstein of arranging for her to have sex from the age of 17 with billionaires, renowned academics, American politicians and a number of other men, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, known at the time as Britain’s Prince Andrew.
All of them denied the allegations. Prosecutors never filed charges in connection with Giuffre’s claims, but her account fueled conspiracy theories about alleged government conspiracies to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by suicide at his farm in Western Australia in April at the age of 41.
Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he committed suicide in jail a month after his arrest. Prosecutors then accused Epstein’s longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, of recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.
Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, although he was transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after being interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch over the summer. His lawyers argued that he should never have been tried or convicted.
The Justice Department said in July that it had received no information that could support prosecuting anyone else.
Many of Epstein’s records were already public
After nearly two decades of court actions and inquiries by journalists, a vast amount of records related to Epstein are already public, including flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury records, court testimony and transcripts of testimony from his accusers, his employees and others.
Yet the public’s appetite for more records has been insatiable, especially for anything related to Epstein’s relationships with famous people including Trump, Mountbatten-Windsor and the Clintons.
Trump was friends with Epstein for years before the two fell out. Neither he nor Clinton have ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of one’s name in the files from the investigation does not make any sense.
Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having a sexual relationship with Giuffre, but King Charles III stripped her of her royal titles this year after her memoir was published after Giuffre’s death.
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Sisak reported from New York.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffref-epstein.