Long-awaited files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have begun to be released by the US Department of Justice.
The government released only part of the so-called Epstein Files on Friday evening in time for the official legal deadline.
It comes after months of bitter recriminations, which eventually led to legislation compelling the US Justice Department to give the public everything it had on Epstein before Christmas.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by US President Donald Trump in November, requires that the materials be released with redactions to protect victims’ names and other identifying information.
While hundreds of thousands of files are understood to be in the latest release, US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier on Friday that not all of them would be made public, and that hundreds thousands more would be published in the next few weeks.
It follows a series of releases by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, while Republican members have typically published documents and photographs in single releases once they have been fully reviewed.
Republican members of the committee have accused Democrats of “cherry-picking” images to paint a specific narrative, but Democrats vowed to continue releasing photos and documents “to provide transparency for the American people”.
Democratic members have accused the Trump administration of a “cover-up” over the delay of a full release of the files.
“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,” said Jamie Raskin, of the Judiciary Committee, and Robert Garcia, of the Oversight Committee.
They said that “for months”, US Attorney General 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,” the pair added.
“We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ.”
Speaking to Fox News earlier on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche explained the reason for delaying potentially hundreds of thousands of files, past the legal deadline of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.
“I expect we are going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks… I expect several hundred thousand more.”
Although there will be some never-before-seen material in the thousands of pages being released on Friday, a lot has already been made public.
And those expecting a “client list” of famous men who cavorted with Epstein will also be disappointed. Though such a list has long been rumoured, the Justice Department said in July that it does not exist.
However, accusations involving Epstein have already led to the downfall of a British prince and a British Ambassador to the United States.
Campaigners seeking justice still hope the redacted documents will show other high-profile figures were aware of or complicit in his sexual abuse.
Politicians seeking answers are also hoping the documents will shed light on the extent of Epstein’s influence among the rich and powerful – and explain how he amassed his wealth.
Furthermore, they may also confirm some of the accusations made by Epstein’s most high-profile survivor Virginia Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir was published in October.
The downloadable files include documents from the criminal investigations into Epstein, such as transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, material seized during raids on his properties, internal Justice Department communications, flight logs, and information about people and entities linked to him.
They detail Epstein’s movements, associates, and decisions made during his prosecution, as well as materials related to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a jail sentence.
The Epstein scandal is one which has dogged Trump’s second term. He had campaigned on a promise to release all government information on the disgraced financier.
However, he then argued against publishing the files, calling them a “Democrat hoax”, before changing his stance again and agreeing to sign legislation if it was passed by US Congress.
It is not clear how much new information will be in the files.
Over the past few months, Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee have released separate data, including a batch of 23,000 documents published in November.
They included emails naming Trump, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, former president Bill Clinton and former UK ambassador to the United States Lord Peter Mandelson.
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
Epstein was a millionaire money manager known for socialising with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, who was accused of sexually abusing underage girls.
His relationships with powerful men, including Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Mountbatten-Windsor, have been the subject of endless fascination and speculation. Neither Trump nor Clinton has been accused of wrongdoing. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied abusing anyone.
Police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in 2005 after he was accused of paying a 14-year-old girl for sex.
The FBI then joined the investigation, but Epstein made a secret deal with the US attorney in Florida to avoid federal charges, enabling him to plead guilty in 2008 to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge.
He served 13 months in a jail work-release programme.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term, Manhattan federal prosecutors revived the case and charged Epstein with sex trafficking, alleging he sexually abused dozens of girls. He died by suicide in jail a month after his arrest.
In 2021, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Epstein’s longtime confidante and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of his underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
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