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Topics: Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Politics, US News, Crime
Britt Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Politics, US News, Crime
Now that the US House of Representatives and the Senate have voted to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, there have been some questions asked.
The decision came days after the House Oversight Committee released over 20,000 files, which mentioned US President Donald Trump by name.
As per ITV News, the files are said to include flight logs from Epstein’s private jets, emails, estate records, court documents, internal Department of Justice communications, and information about his death in prison.
But what will it exclude?
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According to Trump: “We have nothing to hide.”
Writing on Truth Social, he urged Republicans to vote in favour of releasing the files, and claimed he signed off on it as soon as it reached his desk.
But nobody knows what exactly the public will see.
The bill requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all materials, within 30 days of the law being enacted, but there are also clauses governing what can be released to the public.
As of right now, the 20,000 page document was released previously which shows witness statements, electronic and physical evidence from the two major investigations into Epstein.
There is also allegedly 40 computers, 26 storage drives, 70 CDs, and six recording devices, as per the Justice Department.
There’s also another 60 pieces of physical evidence which could show who visited his island and when.
The DOJ claimed there is ‘a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography’.
But because of the Bill’s wording, some fear it could allow Bondi to redact certain elements, such as documents that ‘would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution,’ or anything that could ‘contain personally identifiable information’ about victims which would then ‘constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.’
Obviously, ‘child sexual abuse materials’ and things relating to ‘death, physical abuse, or injury’ will be redacted.
However, for anything that does get redacted or kept out of the release, the DOJ will have to explain why within 15 days of its release.
According to the Bill, ‘no record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted based on embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.’
As for how Trump reacted, he pointed out that Democrats were named in the email files, writing on Truth Social last week: “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”
For now, we’ll have to wait to see how things play out.