Documents about the Jeffrey Epstein affair are fertile ground for the wildest speculation and theories about the explosive revelations they could contain since the American financier and sex offender’s suicide in prison in 2019. A step was taken on Tuesday toward their disclosure with a near-unanimous vote from the House of Representatives, then approval from the Senate.
The text requires the Justice Ministry to publish within 30 days all unclassified documents it has about Jeffrey Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a twenty-year prison sentence, and everyone involved in the legal proceedings.
This includes documents regarding the trial proceedings that led to his 2008 conviction in Florida as well as his federal indictment in New York on more serious charges of sexual exploitation of minors. Also affected are all entities, private or public, associated with Jeffrey Epstein’s activities, including non-criminal activities, as well as flight plans, passenger lists, etc. of all his vehicles.
The piecemeal revelations have so far only fueled distrust among Donald Trump’s MAGA base, many of whom believe that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered to cover up a scandal involving high-profile figures. After campaigning on promises to crack down on whistleblowing, and using the event for political ends, the Republican president disappointed his supporters by urging them to reverse the course, and is now describing the event as a “hoax” used by his Democratic opponents. The unpinned grenade exploded in his face.
More than a thousand victims of Epstein
In February, Justice Minister Pam Bondi, confirming that she wanted to “lift the veil on the abhorrent actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices” published a series of documents, including contact lists or Ghislaine Maxwell’s flight plans, that did not contain any major revelations.
Then in July, a joint memorandum from the Justice Department and the FBI, the federal police, concluded after examining more than 300 gigabytes of data, after finding no new elements that justified the publication of additional documents, ignited the gunpowder in the MAGA camp.
Estimating the number of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims at “more than a thousand”, judicial authorities confirmed the suicide and claimed to have found neither a “client list” of his sexual exploitation network nor “credible evidence that he had blackmailed powerful people”.
Facing a revolt by Republican elected officials, and in order not to lose face when he saw the House of Representatives not comply and approve the release of the document, Donald Trump last week raised his objection to the House vote.
The bill passed on Tuesday of course expressly prohibits the withholding of documents on the basis of the harm that their publication could cause to “government officials, public figures or foreign dignitaries”, or their “politically sensitive nature”.
But the law authorizes the Justice Department to withhold or redact documents under certain circumstances, including preserving the privacy of victims or “ongoing federal investigations or prosecutions,” as long as these restrictions are temporary and strictly regulated. Suffice it to say that the publication of the Epstein files will probably not lift the lid on all questions, and it is certain that these revelations will not completely satisfy the disgruntled.
