US justice department releases heavily redacted cache of Jeffrey Epstein files

Key Highlights

• Bill Clinton appears in several photos, including one in which he is in a swimming pool along with Epstein’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
• The images also show former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. In a letter to Congress, Todd Blanche said that the documents, which date back to 2006, when Epstein was investigated on child prostitution charges, were only the first set of what is planned for release.
• “The volume of materials to be reviewed … means that the department must publicly produce responsive documents on a rolling basis,” the deputy attorney general wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News. He also acknowledged an array of redactions, including the identifying details of more than 1,200 victims and their family members. Congressional Democrats accused the Trump administration of failing to adhere to the letter of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the justice department to release all “unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” in its possession related to the financier’s cases by 19 December.
• Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. The law also requires the justice department to publish any materials from the investigations that relate toMaxwell, who was found guilty in 2021 of aidingEpstein’s sex trafficking of teen girls and sentenced to 20 years in prison.“Technically they’re not in compliance,” said Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, a leader of the push to get the legislation passed.“The law calls for all the documents that are unclassified to be released.
• They have not done that.