In the five days since the Justice Department began releasing the Epstein files (in a piecemeal fashion that seemingly flouted a law President Trump signed last month), the usually quiet pre-holiday stretch has seen members of Congress issuing threats of prosecution, DOJ attempts to protect President Trump and a few newsworthy revelations.
A few document dumps in, we’re getting some real information (and Trump mentions)
While the first tranche of documents contained little new information (though plentiful decontextualized photos of former President Bill Clinton), some nuggets are starting to surface.
Trump has not been formally accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes, but some of the new documents provide details about the two men’s close relationship. They include a January 2020 email from an assistant U.S. attorney in New York, name redacted, telling someone (also redacted) that Trump flew on Epstein’s jet “ many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case.” The writer goes on to say that on one flight in 1993, only Epstein, Trump and an unnamed person who was at the time 20 years old.
There was also a letter apparently written by Epstein to Larry Nassar, the former U.S. gymnastics team doctor who is currently imprisoned after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting numerous athletes. The existence of the correspondence was previously reported, though not the content. The letter says: “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab snatch,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair.” It was postmarked three days after Epstein was found dead in his cell.
DOJ tried to get ahead of these revelations by acting as Trump’s personal attorney
“Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Department said in a Tuesday morning tweet. “To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
The White House directed reporters asking about individual files back to that statement.
Lawmakers continue to be displeased with DOJ’s transparency
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) put out a statement Tuesday homing in on widely circulating emails in the files that mentioned unnamed Epstein co-conspirators.
“Buried in the Epstein files is an email disclosing the Department of Justice was looking into at least ten potential Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirators,” the statement said. “The Department of Justice needs to shed more light on who was on the list, how they were involved, and why they chose not to prosecute. Protecting possible co-conspirators is not the transparency the American people and Congress are demanding.”
Schumer doesn’t threaten any action to compel the DOJ to release more information.
In Congress more broadly, lawmakers are split on how hard to push. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) angered some liberals when he said on NBC Sunday that calls to impeach DOJ officials are “premature,” pointing to tools in appropriations bills that can be used to force compliance.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the most prominent Republican who has worked for the files’ release, countered on CBS Sunday that he’s rallying support in Congress for an effort to bring inherent contempt charges against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
DOJ is taking documents down and putting them back up
Multiple outlets are reporting that certain documents have disappeared from the DOJ website, only to later reappear. It’s not immediately clear that there are any documents missing, or further redactions.
This is another reminder that the documents are coming from a source with serious credibility problems.
Bill Clinton says let ‘em rip
Clinton, who was featured in many photos in the original dump — and who Trump constantly cites as the reason Democrats are supposedly trying to keep the documents hidden — pushed for the complete release of all of the files.
“What the Department of Justice has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected,” Clinton’s spokesperson said in a Sunday statement. “We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection. Accordingly, we call on President Trump to direct Attorney General Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials referring to, mentioning, or containing a photograph of Bill Clinton.”
