1,200 VICTIMS AND RELATIVES, AND 254 MASSEUSES
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress in a letter that the department had identified more than 1,200 victims of Epstein and their relatives during an “exhaustive review” of the documents.
One document was Epstein’s masseuse list, which contained 254 names. All the names were redacted.
Blanche said the documents released on Friday included FBI files from its 2018 and 2006 investigations of Epstein and its investigation of his 2019 death, among other materials.
HEAVY REDACTIONS, DEMOCRATS CRY FOUL
Many of the documents released by the Justice Department were heavily redacted. One of the redacted files, a 119-page document that appeared to contain grand jury testimony, was entirely blacked out. Three more documents of 100 pages each were totally redacted.
Some Democrats decried the Justice Department’s failure to release all of the Epstein files by the deadline set by a law passed by Congress in November and signed by President Trump.
Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator, called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to appear before Congress and explain why all the files had not been released.
Chuck Schumer, the senior Senate Democrat, said in a statement, “this set of heavily redacted documents released by the Department of Justice today is just a fraction of the whole body of evidence”.
Thomas Massie, a House Republican who was a leading sponsor of the Epstein document release law, said on X that Friday’s partial release “fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law” that Trump signed.
Trump and his Justice Department likely will face more criticism in the coming days for the paucity of Friday’s release and the fact that Trump is barely mentioned, while Clinton is. Ultimately, it is likely that Trump has not yet put the Epstein controversy behind him.
