At the very least 16 recordsdata disappeared from the Justice Division’s public webpage for paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein — together with {a photograph} displaying President Donald Trump — lower than a day after they have been posted, with no rationalization from the federal government and no discover to the general public.
The lacking recordsdata, which have been obtainable Friday and now not accessible by Saturday, included pictures of work depicting nude girls, and one displaying a sequence of pictures alongside a credenza and in drawers. In that picture, inside a drawer amongst different photographs, was {a photograph} of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Justice Division didn’t say why the recordsdata have been eliminated or whether or not their disappearance was intentional. A spokesperson for the division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On-line, the unexplained lacking recordsdata fueled hypothesis about what was taken down and why the general public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the highly effective figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee pointed to the lacking picture that includes a Trump photograph in a put up on X, writing: “What else is being lined up? We’d like transparency for the American public.”
The episode deepened issues that had already emerged from the Justice Division’s much-anticipated doc launch. The tens of 1000’s of pages made public provided little new perception into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial selections that allowed him to keep away from severe federal costs for years, whereas omitting a few of the most intently watched supplies, together with FBI interviews with victims and inside Justice Division memos on charging selections.
Scant new perception within the preliminary disclosures
A number of the most consequential information anticipated about Epstein are nowhere to be discovered within the Justice Division’s preliminary disclosures, which span tens of 1000’s of pages.
Lacking are FBI interviews with survivors and inside Justice Division memos analyzing charging selections — information that might have helped clarify how investigators seen the case and why Epstein was allowed in 2008 to plead responsible to a comparatively minor state-level prostitution cost.
The gaps go additional.
The information, required to be launched underneath a latest legislation handed by Congress, hardly reference a number of highly effective figures lengthy related to Epstein, together with Britain’s former Prince Andrew, renewing questions on who was scrutinized, who was not, and the way a lot the disclosures really advance public accountability
Among the many contemporary nuggets: perception into the Justice Division’s resolution to desert an investigation into Epstein within the 2000s, which enabled him to plead responsible to that state-level cost, and a beforehand unseen 1996 criticism accusing Epstein of stealing pictures of kids.
The releases to date have been heavy on pictures of Epstein’s properties in New York Metropolis and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with some photographs of celebrities and politicians.
There was a sequence of never-before-seen photographs of former President Invoice Clinton however fleetingly few of Trump. Each have been related to Epstein, however each have since disowned these friendships. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in reference to Epstein and there was no indication the photographs performed a job within the felony circumstances introduced in opposition to him.
Regardless of a Friday deadline set by Congress to make every little thing public, the Justice Division stated it plans to launch information on a rolling foundation. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming technique of obscuring survivors’ names and different figuring out info. The division has not given any discover when extra information would possibly arrive.
That strategy angered some Epstein accusers and members of Congress who fought to go the legislation compelled the division to behave. As an alternative of marking the tip of a yearslong battle for transparency, the doc launch Friday was merely the start of an indefinite wait for a whole image of Epstein’s crimes and the steps taken to research them.
“I really feel like once more the DOJ, the justice system is failing us,” stated Marina Lacerda, who alleges Epstein began sexually abusing her at his New York Metropolis mansion when she was 14.
Most of the long-anticipated information have been redacted or lacked context
Federal prosecutors in New York introduced intercourse trafficking costs in opposition to Epstein in 2019, however he killed himself in jail after his arrest.
The paperwork simply made public have been a sliver of doubtless hundreds of thousands of pages information within the division’s possession. In a single instance, Deputy Lawyer Common Todd Blanche stated Manhattan federal prosecutors had greater than 3.6 million information from intercourse trafficking investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, although many duplicated materials already turned over by the FBI.
Most of the information launched to date had been made public in court docket filings, congressional releases or freedom of data requests, although, for the primary time, they have been multi function place and obtainable for the general public to seek for free.
Ones that have been new have been typically missing essential context or closely blacked out. A 119-page doc marked “Grand Jury-NY,” probably from one of many federal intercourse trafficking investigations that led to the fees in opposition to Epstein in 2019 or Maxwell in 2021, was completely blacked out.
Trump’s Republican allies seized on the Clinton pictures, together with photographs of the Democrat with singers Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. There have been additionally photographs of Epstein with actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and even Epstein with TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. However not one of the photographs had captions and was no rationalization given for why any of them have been collectively.
The meatiest information launched to date confirmed that federal prosecutors had what seemed to be a powerful case in opposition to Epstein in 2007 but by no means charged him.
Transcripts of grand jury proceedings, launched publicly for the primary time, included testimony from FBI brokers who described interviews that they had with a number of ladies and younger girls who described being paid to carry out intercourse acts for Epstein. The youngest was 14 and in ninth grade.
One had informed investigators about being sexually assaulted by Epstein when she initially resisted his advances throughout a therapeutic massage.
One other, then 21, testified earlier than the grand jury about how Epstein had employed her when she was 16 to carry out a sexual therapeutic massage and the way she had gone on to recruit different ladies to do the identical.
“For each woman that I dropped at the desk he would give me $200,” she stated. They have been principally folks she knew from highschool, she stated. “I additionally informed them that if they’re underneath age, simply lie about it and inform him that you’re 18.”
The paperwork additionally include a transcript of an interview Justice Division legal professionals did greater than a decade later with the U.S. lawyer who oversaw the case, Alexander Acosta, about his final resolution to not deliver federal costs.
Acosta, who was labor secretary throughout Trump’s first time period, cited issues about whether or not a jury would imagine Epstein’s accusers.
He additionally stated the Justice Division may need been extra reluctant to make a federal prosecution out of a case that straddled the authorized border between intercourse trafficking and soliciting prostitution, one thing extra generally dealt with by state prosecutors.
“I’m not saying it was the precise view,” Acosta added. He additionally stated that the general public immediately would probably view the survivors in another way.
“There’s been plenty of adjustments in sufferer shaming,” Acosta stated.
