WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES
\nVictims 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 famous names in Epstein\u2019s social circle including Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.
\nBut blackouts of many of the documents — combined with control over the release by officials in President Donald Trump\u2019s administration — fueled allegations of a high-level cover-up. Democrats on Saturday demanded answers after one image that included a photo of Trump was no longer visible in the Justice Department\u2019s online release.
\n\u201cIf they\u2019re taking this down, just imagine how much more they\u2019re trying to hide,\u201d said senior Democrat Chuck Schumer. \u201cThis could be one of the biggest cover ups in American history.\u201d Among scores of blacked-out sections, one 119-page document labeled \u201cGrand Jury-NY\u201d was entirely redacted. One Epstein survivor, Jess Michaels, said she spent hours combing the documents to find her victim\u2019s statement and communication from when she had called an FBI tip line.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t find any of those,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cIs this the best that the government can do? Even an act of Congress isn\u2019t getting us justice.\u201d Even so, the files shed some light on the disgraced financier\u2019s intimate ties to the rich, famous and powerful — Trump, once a close friend, among them.
\nAt least one file contains dozens of censored images of naked or scantily clad figures. Previously unseen photographs of disgraced former prince Andrew show him lying across the legs of five women. Other pictures show Clinton lounging in a hot tub, part of the image blacked out, and swimming alongside a dark-haired woman who appears to be Epstein\u2019s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
\nWhen Trump\u2019s aides goaded Clinton over the photos, his spokesman responded that the White House \u201chasn\u2019t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves.\u201d Among the paperwork were handwritten notes using phrases such as \u201cI have a female for him\u201d and \u201c[redacted] has girl for tonight.\u201d
\nRepublican congressman Thomas Massie, who has long pushed for complete release of the files, said the release \u201cgrossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law.\u201dThat law required the government\u2019s case file to be posted publicly by Friday, constrained only by legal and victim privacy concerns. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told ABC that there was no attempt \u201cto hold anything back\u201d to protect Trump.
\nTrump 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.
\nThe 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. 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\u2019s 2019 arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing in the case.
\nBut 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\u2019s 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 banker, whose death was ruled a suicide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES 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 famous names in Epstein\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-521340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n