Almost immediately after US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) was releasing 3 million additional pages of files related to Jeffrey Epstein on Friday last week, Fox News published an exclusive interview with him seeking to shape what Americans could expect to find in the files.
After reviewing years of Epstein’s correspondence, the justice department determined that there was nothing in them in which Epstein said anything criminally implicating Trump, Blanche said.
“In none of these communications, even when doing his best to disparage President Trump, did Epstein suggest President Trump had done anything criminal or had any inappropriate contact with any of his victims,” he told Fox News.
The story highlighted several e-mails in the release in which Epstein disparages Trump.
Blanche’s interview underscored the administration’s aggressive efforts to downplay Trump’s links to Epstein and get ahead of any potential negative exposure for the president.
A more detailed look at the documents offers a slightly more complicated picture.
It is true that while the documents do not show any wrongdoing on Trump’s part, they do provide more insight into the relationship between Trump and Epstein, as well as a connection between Trump’s orbit and Epstein.
Trump’s name appears in unverified tips sent to the FBI, and in the handwritten notes taken during an interview with a victim. An Epstein employee also told investigators he recalled Trump visiting Epstein’s home. The documents released on Friday also show a woman named Melania exchanging friendly e-mails in 2002 and mentioning traveling to Palm Beach.
None of those mentions are particularly damning for Trump, which only raise more questions about why the Trump administration pushed so hard against releasing the files, even after Trump supported their disclosure as a candidate.
Trump has also moved to push back on efforts to tie him to Epstein, suing the Wall Street Journal over a report that he submitted a lewd drawing to go along with a note in a 50th birthday book for Epstein. The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight subsequently obtained the full book, including the birthday letter.
Then-US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene last year said Trump told her that his friends would get hurt if the files were released.
Indeed, the files released last week do connect people close to Trump to Epstein for the first time. US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend of Trump, arranged to visit Epstein’s island in the Caribbean with his family, the files show. Even though the e-mails suggest the two did meet, Lutnick told the New York Times he never met Epstein before hanging up. No victims have accused Lutnick of wrongdoing related to Epstein.
Elon Musk, a Trump ally who served as a top White House adviser last year, revived interest in the Epstein files when he suggested Trump did not want them released because Trump’s name was in them. The e-mails released last week show Musk seeking to meet Epstein on Epstein’s island and asking to go to the “wildest” parties taking place. The visit does not appear to have materialized, as Musk e-mailed Epstein that logistics would not work out.
Steve Bannon, a top Trump strategist, also corresponded extensively with Epstein and conducted an extensive video interview with Epstein, the files show. Epstein and Bannon also mocked Trump in their exchanges, and Bannon appears to have provided advice to Epstein on how to help rehabilitate his image.
The administration has signaled that the release would be the end of its efforts to investigate Epstein.
“There’s a lot of correspondence, there’s a lot of e-mails, there’s a lot of photographs — there’s a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr Epstein or people around him, but that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody,” Blanche said in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
While Trump himself appears to have escaped unscathed for now, US Representative Ro Khanna has suggested there would be a push to get more documents released.
“The DOJ said it identified over 6 million potentially responsive pages, but is releasing only about 3.5 million after review and redactions,” he said.
“This raises questions as to why the rest are being withheld. I will be reviewing closely to see if they release what I’ve been pushing for: the FBI 302 victim interview statements, a draft indictment and prosecution memorandum prepared during the 2007 Florida investigation, and hundreds of thousands of e-mails and files from Epstein’s computers. Failing to release these files only shields the powerful individuals who were involved and hurts the public’s trust in our institutions,” he said.
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