The newest launch of tens of millions of gadgets from the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata sharpened a public reckoning but additionally deepened the recurring tragedy of his victims.
And the prospect that the authorized system may ship survivors some justice appeared to recede even additional.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled on “State of the Union” on Sunday that there could be no extra prosecutions associated to the controversy round Epstein, the convicted intercourse offender who died in jail in 2019.
“We need to separate those two ideas, the fact that there’s the Epstein files and whether there’s anybody there that we can go after,” Blanche instructed NCS’s Dana Bash.
“There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. 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 stated.
The Justice Department on Friday launched more than 3 million pages from investigations into the disgraced financier, together with movies, pictures and emails to outstanding folks. The disclosures stirred new intrigue about Epstein’s friendships with President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Trump and Clinton each deny information of Epstein’s crimes, and neither stands accused of any wrongdoing round these previous connections.
The new recordsdata additionally worsened the drama around Britain’s royal family after Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated the former Prince Andrew ought to testify to the US Congress about his lengthy hyperlinks to Epstein. In an undated picture, King Charles III’s brother is proven leaning over a girl or woman on the flooring.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he’s now identified, has denied all accusations in opposition to him and has stated he by no means seen something that struck him as suspicious when he was round Epstein.
But the fallout from Friday’s launch exhibits how every batch of recordsdata casts new shadows over the reputations of highly effective elites in politics, enterprise, tech, royalty, sports activities and finance, whose wealth and fame opened entry to Epstein’s circle.
The flood of info, nevertheless, is failing in a single vital respect. It’s doing little to ship justice or closure to victims whom Epstein trafficked or abused as younger girls and who’ve bravely shared tales of their trauma.
Epstein survivors had been provided a measure of vindication by the 2022 sentencing of his affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell to 20 years in jail after she was convicted of exploiting and abusing a number of minor women alongside Epstein. But many survivors felt justice was lower brief when Epstein took his personal life whereas awaiting trial.
One survivor, Danielle Bensky, instructed NCS’s Erin Burnett on Friday that victims had been annoyed that some of them had been recognized in paperwork launched by the DOJ regardless of guarantees they’d be protected.
Blanche stated Friday morning when the recordsdata had been launched that errors had been “inevitable” given the quantity of paperwork. DOJ has had an inbox for victims to elevate considerations.
Bensky additionally believes there stays a scarcity of transparency from the DOJ about what info could have been withheld from the newest launch.
“It is just a trove of victims’ information. And so, ‘What are we protecting?’ is the point for me and for so many other survivors,” Bensky stated. “So, if you’re not protecting survivors, then what — who are you protecting?”
Many critics of the DOJ’s course of and of wider flawed investigations of Epstein query how it may be that so many ladies say they had been abused in his alleged trafficking ring, however there haven’t been wider prosecutions.
In a normal sense, Blanche is correct: The existence of investigative recordsdata containing info, some of it unflattering, about the associates of a alleged prison does not imply these folks have accomplished something criminally flawed. The danger of reputational injury is why the DOJ usually does not launch recordsdata when no fees are laid.
“The victims want to be made whole,” Blanche instructed NCS. “And so we want that. The attorney general wants that more than anything, but that doesn’t mean we can just create evidence or that we can just kind of come up with a case … that isn’t there.”
But critics in Congress query whether or not the Department has totally complied with a legislation handed after a uncommon GOP revolt in opposition to Trump. They are indignant about choices made by officers about redactions.
The Epstein case has additionally lengthy been at the heart of conspiracy theories which might be unattainable to fulfill. And the administration’s failure to launch the recordsdata till compelled to accomplish that by the new legislation fueled claims of a cover-up, which officers deny.
Rep Ro. Khanna on Sunday argued that the administration had not complied with the legislation and stated he, together with the legislation’s co-author, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, would think about contempt or impeachment proceedings in opposition to senior officers if efficiency didn’t enhance. “It’s frankly one of the largest scandals, in my view, in our country’s history,” Khanna instructed NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Khanna stated survivors had been upset by the unintentional launch of some victims’ names and wish all the recordsdata launched. “They’ve released at best half the documents,” Khanna stated.
The California Democrat additionally stated the chance of new fees must be thought-about, in addition to whether or not any Epstein associates had “abused or raped underage girls.”
Khanna referred to as for broader debate about well-known individuals who gravitated towards Epstein.
“There are rich and powerful people who may not have committed a crime, but who are emailing Jeffrey Epstein well after he’s a pedophile talking about going to his island, talking about wanting to participate in wild parties,” Khanna stated. “The American people are asking, ‘How are our rich and powerful people living in this country? What moral code are they living by?’”
Jamie Raskin, the prime Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in the meantime, stated on “State of the Union” that Blanche’s feedback had been “astonishing” and accused the Justice Department of masking up for the president.
The Maryland lawmaker argued that Blanche had “never once attempted to make the transformation from being Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer to the No. 2 person for the United States Department of Justice.” And he condemned the “dribs and drabs” of recordsdata popping out, accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of refusing to adjust to the legislation requiring disclosure.
On Saturday, Trump argued that the newly launched paperwork had been useful for him, claiming they revealed a conspiracy when Epstein requested the writer Michael Wolff for recommendation after a Miami Herald story featured dozens of girls saying they had been victims of the financier’s abuse. “I’m thinking what would trump do,” Epstein wrote to Wolff.
The president commented that “I didn’t see it myself, but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping.”
This snapshot will do little to ease political intrigue over Trump’s relationship with Epstein, particularly since he was talked about greater than 1,000 occasions in the newest disclosures. The paperwork include a listing of unverified assault allegations in opposition to Trump compiled by FBI officers final yr. There are additionally FBI notes a few girl who accused Trump in a lawsuit of raping her when she was 13, and an FBI interview with one of Epstein’s victims who said that Maxwell as soon as “presented her” to Trump at a celebration.
There’s no public proof that any of the allegations in opposition to Trump contained in the new paperwork had been deemed credible by the FBI.
Blanche stated on “State of the Union” that such questions weren’t particular to Trump. “I think folks will see when they review the materials we released is that there have been hundreds of calls made to the FBI where allegations are made by either anonymous individuals or people who are very quickly determined to not be credible, whether it’s the nature of what they’re saying or the fact they won’t provide any information or corroboration, and that’s part of the Epstein files,” he stated.
The subsequent twist in the saga may come this week, with the House anticipated to vote on whether or not to maintain Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt for refusing a subpoena to testify about potential connections to Epstein. Attorneys for the Clintons argue they’re being unfairly singled out and referred to as the panel’s subpoenas for his or her testimony “invalid and legally unenforceable.”
Some Democrats voted with committee Republicans on the contempt movement. But Khanna instructed “Meet the Press” it was untimely to maintain the former president in prison contempt. “I’ve also said that President Clinton should come before the committee. But he should come after all the files have been released,” Khanna stated.
Raskin instructed NCS that he’d vote to maintain the Clintons in contempt provided that Bondi faces an analogous measure. “Remember, she’s got millions of documents that she is legally compelled to turn over under a months-old subpoena and under federal law, and she’s not doing it,” Raskin stated. “If they’re not going to do it, then they’re not serious about investigating the Epstein files, and that’s what America wants.”
Files beforehand launched in December included never-before-seen pictures of Bill Clinton and Epstein collectively and the former president sitting shirtless in a scorching tub with somebody a DOJ official described as a “victim” of Epstein’s sexual abuse.
The batch consists of frequent communications between Maxwell and Clinton staffers between 2001 and 2004. During this era, Bill Clinton traveled together with his staffers on Epstein’s personal aircraft at the least 16 occasions, in accordance to a NCS evaluation.
A Clinton spokesperson has repeatedly stated that the former president lower ties with Epstein earlier than the financier was charged with soliciting prostitution in 2006 and that he didn’t learn about his crimes. Clinton additionally denied ever having visited Epstein’s island.
The renewed concentrate on Epstein’s social circle follows the launch of new paperwork that point out different well-known acquaintances. They present Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in 2012 planning a visit to Epstein’s island, years later than Lutnick stated he had lower ties with Epstein. Lutnick stated on a podcast final yr that he and his spouse determined after a 2005 encounter by no means to affiliate with Epstein. But 2012 emails show Lutnick’s spouse and assistant communicated with an Epstein assistant about organising a go to and lunch on one of the financier’s Caribbean islands.
When contacted Friday by The New York Times, Lutnick stated, “I spent zero time with him,” and hung up. A Commerce Department spokesperson instructed NCS: “Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”
Similarly, the paperwork present tech billionaire Elon Musk attempting to coordinate journeys to Epstein’s island in 2012 and 2013, regardless of Musk’s claims to having rebuffed Epstein’s makes an attempt to invite him. Musk at one level asks which period would function the “wildest party.”
In a social media publish Friday evening, Musk stated, “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’, but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.”