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The US Department of Justice will release “several hundred thousand” documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, after a months-long pressure campaign to force Donald Trump’s administration to publish government files about the late convicted sex offender.
Deputy attorney-general Todd Blanche told Fox News on Friday morning the DoJ would publish reams of materials by the end of the day, including photographs and “other materials” associated with federal investigations into the former financier, who was found dead in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
But Blanche acknowledged the DoJ would not release all the materials in its possession right away, saying “several hundred thousand more” would be made public “over the next couple of weeks”.
“I expect that we are going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks, so today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” he said.
Friday’s disclosures will be the latest chapter in a long-running saga that has gripped Washington and ignited a political firestorm on both sides of the Atlantic, amid questions about Epstein’s ties to rich and powerful figures, including the US president.
Trump has acknowledged that he and Epstein were once friends but said they had a falling out more than two decades ago. He has vehemently denied any involvement in the sex offender’s criminal activities.
Trump and top Republicans on Capitol Hill for months sought to block the release of the DoJ’s files, which include evidence gathered during multiple criminal and civil investigations into Epstein and his associates. The strategy angered some parts of the president’s Maga base, given that on the campaign trail he had said he would release the files.
But a bipartisan effort in Congress to force a vote on legislation compelling the DoJ to publish its files relating to Epstein gathered steam. Last month, Trump changed his position after it became clear the bill would pass and urged Republicans to vote in favour of releasing the files.
The bill gave US attorney-general Pam Bondi 30 days to hand over the materials but allowed the department to withhold files that could jeopardise active federal investigations or pose national security concerns. Friday marks 30 days since Trump signed the bill into law.
Blanche insisted Trump had “for years” called for “full transparency” in the Epstein case.
Still, he suggested that the materials that the DoJ would make public could be redacted, telling Fox News the “most important thing . . . is that we protect victims”.
“We are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim . . . is completely protected,” Blanche said.
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