(AFP) – Victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday expressed anger after a long-awaited cache of records from cases against him were released with many pages blacked-out and photos censored. The trove of material released by the US Justice Department included photographs of former president Bill Clinton and other luminaries in Epstein’s wealthy social circle, including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.
But blackouts across many of the documents — combined with tight control over the release by officials in President Donald Trump’s administration — stoked skepticism over whether the disclosures would silence conspiracy theories of a high-level cover-up. “Just put out the files and stop redacting names that don’t need to be redacted,” Marina Lacerda, an accuser of Epstein, told CBS. “Are we protecting the survivors or are we protecting these elite men? The whole process of being transparent was to only redact the survivors and the victims’ names.”
Another Epstein survivor, Jess Michaels, said she spent hours combing the documents to find her victim’s statement and communication from when she had called an FBI tip line. “I can’t find any of those,” she told CNN. “Is this the best that the government can do? Even an act of Congress isn’t getting us justice.” Among scores of blacked-out sections, a 119-page document labeled “Grand Jury-NY” is entirely redacted. Seven pages listing 254 masseuses have every name beneath thick black bars alongside the note, “redacted to protect potential victim information.”
Even so, the files shed some light on the disgraced financier’s intimate ties to the rich, famous, and powerful — Trump, once a close friend, among them. At least one file contains dozens of censored images of naked or scantily clad figures. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, posing with firearms. Previously unseen photographs of disgraced former prince Andrew are included, as well as images of a youthful-looking Clinton lounging in a hot tub, part of the image blacked out, and Clinton swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. The White House wasted no time seizing on Clinton’s appearances. “Slick Willy! @BillClinton just chillin, without a care in the world. Little did he know…” Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on X.
Clinton’s spokesman Angel Urena responded by saying “the White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves.”
Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has long pushed for the release, stated that it “grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.” That law required the government’s entire case file to be posted publicly by Friday, constrained only by legal and victim privacy concerns. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would “pursue every option to make sure the truth comes out.”
Trump spent months trying to block the disclosure of the files linked to Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The Republican president ultimately bowed to mounting pressure from Congress — including members of his own party — and last month signed the law compelling publication of the materials. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged in a letter to Congress that the Friday release was incomplete, and that the Justice Department would complete production of files in the coming weeks.
Trump once moved in the same Palm Beach and New York party scene as Epstein, appearing with him at events throughout the 1990s. He severed ties years before Epstein’s 2019 arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing in the case. But his right-wing base has long fixated on the Epstein saga and conspiracy theories alleging the financier ran a sex trafficking ring for the global elite. Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, remains the only person convicted in connection with his crimes and is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for the former teacher and banker, whose death was ruled a suicide.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
