(AFP) – US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday released a set of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking and other serious offenses but committed suicide before his trial in 2019. Bondi said the files fulfilled a pledge of transparency in governance made by US President Donald Trump, although the documents did not immediately appear to contain any new revelations. The department said many of them had been previously leaked.
“This Department of Justice is following through on President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,” said Bondi in a statement. The documents included an evidence list, flight plans, and a contact book that appeared to be part of the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who was convicted of sex crimes in 2021. Maxwell has been serving a 20-year prison sentence in New York since 2022.
Bondi said her department had received 200 pages of documents in response to a request for “full and complete” files on Epstein. “However, the Attorney General was later informed of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein that were not previously disclosed,” the Justice Department statement said. Bondi requested the Federal Bureau of Investigation, run by Trump appointee Kash Patel, to provide the remaining documents to her office by Friday morning.
Epstein, a financier with a powerful network in the United States and abroad, was accused of raping young girls, but his suicide by hanging in a New York prison in August 2019 halted his prosecution. He was accused of running a sex trafficking ring alongside Maxwell for almost three decades. Unsealed documents in the case included the names of a number of high-profile politicians, celebrities, and businesspeople, fueling conspiracy theories around his death in August 2019.
The US Department of Justice and the FBI, however, found no evidence of foul play in his death. A 2023 Department of Justice Inspector General’s report, however, found a “combination of negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures” led to circumstances that allowed Epstein to take his own life.
© 2024 AFP
