Topics: Celebrity, Crime, Donald Trump, Explained, Jeffrey Epstein, News, US News, World News, Royal Family
The Department of Justice has until 19 December to release all the files it holds on the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes after both the US House of Representatives and the Senate voted to pass a bill to force the department to publicly share all its documents relating to the criminal financer.
And earlier this month, on 12 November, the US House Oversight Committee released 20,000 pages of documents associated with Epstein, who died by suicide while awaiting sex-trafficking charges in 2019.
Now, since this news broke and a number of A-list celebrities and Royal Family members have been named in the documents, there's been some confusion about what the files actually are and what it means to be named in them.
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So, let's break it down.
The Epstein files are thought to include thousands of documents, including flight logs, emails, estate records, court documents, as well as internal Department of Justice communications, and information about the investigation into his death in prison.
People have been sifting through the thousands of files to pull out names they recognise.
But contrary to what some people might wrongly believe, being named in the files does not automatically equal any sort of guilt or wrongdoing.
This is because the files are a varied mishmash of emails, communications, names, and random snippets of information, many of which are completely unrelated to the actual crimes committed by Epstein.
For example, Shakespeare, who died in 1616, was named a whopping nine times in the documents, but as we know, he of course played no part in the crimes.
Michael Jackson, Colin Firth, Adele, and Stephen Hawking were also name-dropped, though there's no evidence any of them knew or were friends of Epstein. It seems that people have been getting confused about the difference between the Epstein 'files' and 'contact book' as well as the alleged 'client list'.
Essentially, there's been a longstanding conspiracy theory that Epstein kept a little black book or a list of his clients, which includes the names of high-profile figures.
Theorists also believe that the convicted sex offender was killed and his death was made to look like a suicide to protect the name of those on the ‘list’.
However, an investigation by the Department of Justice and FBI earlier this year confirmed that such a list doesn't actually exist, as well as clarifying that he was not murdered during his 36-day-stay at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
So, unless something has changed, it looks like such a list won't be uncovered when the rest of the files are released.
As for the 'contact book,' this is a list that people have put together by sifting through documents to find the full list of names in Epstein's contact book.
Again though, important to note that appearing in these records doesn't suggest any criminal behaviour connected to Epstein.
The names mentioned include purported victims, those making accusations, and individuals with indirect ties to Epstein who became involved in the civil or criminal cases against the sex offender's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
For example, both Clinton and Trump appear in the documents due to their past use of Epstein's aircraft, though neither faces formal allegations, and both have denied participating in Epstein's illegal activities.
As for what will happen next, as mentioned earlier, the new bill requires the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, within 30 days - with 19 December as the deadline.
After both chambers of Congress voted in its favour, the bill was sent to US President Donald Trump who also signed it off.
It allows for redactions about Epstein’s victims for ongoing federal investigations, but the department cannot withhold information due to 'embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity'.
